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| Looking South towards Achlean |
It was a real dog of a day; just as the weather forecast had predicted. Relentless rain coupled with 80-90 mph winds. Classic Scottish weather! Nevertheless, we had a limited number of days in the Cairngorms so I was keen to get stuff done. I had seen that the weather would also be bad tomorrow with plenty of snow forecast, so I had that planned as a rest day. The day after that was looking excellent weather-wise so I was planning to tackle Cairngorm then. With the weather being so bad, I wanted to tackle something quite straightforward; so we could bail out early and easily if we needed to. Flicking through the books, I quickly homed in on Sgor Gaoith.
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| Looking South into Glen Feshie |
We didn't leave until after 08:30 mainly because I was looking out the window hoping that the wind would stop howling or the rain would ease a little... it didn't. We drove into Glen Feshie and parked up just north along the road from Auchlean. To my horror, the weather had somehow got worse; the wind and rain was now whipping down the glen from the south. We were soaked through only a few minutes after setting off. Somehow, the rain seemed to be getting in underneath our jackets; something I've heard folk joke about in the past when talking about the Scottish weather.
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The track heading up towards
Carn Ban Mor |
A short walk along the road saw us turn onto the track to the east through some pine trees. The colours were spectacular and the trees gave us some shelter from the wind and the rain. This was shortlived however, as we continued up the track and out onto the open heather covered hillside. As we got higher, the wind cold stronger and more relentless. Finding it difficult to stay on our feet, we took shelter behind a large cairn in the bealach to the south of Coire Ruadh (750m). I couldn't see the top of Carn Ban Mor or the rest of the ridge ahead; it was covered in cloud. By now we were wet through and pretty cold. I made the decision to head back down. Looking back now, it was definately the right call. It would have meant crawling another 350 metres up the slope to the top and then trying not to be blown off the top of the ridge into Glen Einich. Drenched and cold, but in good spirits, we headed back down the track to the car. We joked with each other about how awful the weather was and how no one in their right mind would have attempted a Munro today :)
A good experience considering the weather today. You need days like that occasionally for a reality check and a reminder as to just how savage mountain weather can be. The warm of the wood burning stove and the hot tub back at base were a very welcome end to the day.
