Hut: Lagangabh Hut, Glencoe
Weather: Scottish
We had a lot of new faces along on this meet. Friday was the traditional event of drinking whisky, and checking weather reports every hour or so in the vain hope that something might improve. With nothing looking promising many of us decided that we’d scoot up Curved ridge in the morning. Those that didn’t fancy the scramble decided to walk up Buachaille Etive Beag instead.
The worst wind was forecast for the early morning, so after a leisurely breakfast seven of us set out for the ridge. Three of us were carrying climbing racks and rope on the offing that we might find some ice. (We did not.)
At the base of the ridge the sun was out, blue sky was breaking through and we were all beginning to feel very optimistic as we stripped off the waterproofs and cut back to base layers. It was a definite day of ‘follow the president’ with Michael in the lead up the ridge proper.
The Buachaille makes for beautiful scrambling, even if the rock is wet, so even though the clouds were back by the mid way point and by the time the rock ran out at the top the rain had set in, we were all still in great spirits.
We even found some steep snow clingingly to the gully at the top giving some of the new members the opportunity to try out kicking steps in a snow pack for the first time.
On the top we stopped in the shelter of the circle cairn for some lunch, and then started back down. The top of Coire na Tulaich was still holding some snow so, after the initial careful decent, it was a glissade down. Another first for some of the party.
Back at the hut it was kettle on and warming up by the fire while we waited for the others to return from the Wee Bauchaille. All round a good day, and some good intro experience for some new members.