Probably, the most difficult weather conditions I’ve experienced in all my trips to Scotland so far (Munros Completed : Beinn a Chleibh (49)).
What a difference a year makes. Last year driving up to Scotland it was -10C driving through the county of Wiltshire and pretty much below freezing for most of the way. This time however, the freezing temperatures were replaced by milder wetter weather. The further North I drove, the wetter and windier it became until just beyond Loch Lomond I could barely see in front of the car despite the wipers being on fast speed. At times I had to drive along the middle of the road as the water was streaming down from the hills forming cascade of mini-waterfalls by the road side. Beinglas farm where I walked last year had some of the fields completely under water and the river had burst its banks!
I was going to have to pick my Munros very carefully as the ground would be very wet & any normally boggy area was likely to be impassable if not flooded. Any stream crossing probably was out of the question. There had bee a good couple weeks of snow in the first 2 weeks of December, but since then it had been so mild and wet that most of the snow had disappeared. I could see a small amount of the tops but it was just a couple of patches. The 1st day had already been written off to the weather as by next morning it was still very windy and there was no chance of going out.
Beinn a Chleibh
First decent day of weather so I decided on a reasonable early start arriving at the car park at 08:20. There was a frost on the car and it was about -1, but with no wind. Started the hike at 08:30 & my recce yesterday turned out to be a very good idea. The first part over the cut forest was not as boggy as it could have been and within 50m I managed to find a faint track, which soon led to a larger vehicle track which then met the forestry road. I followed the cut forest line up to the top of the wooded area and then headed east along the wood boundary line. Fortunately, this also had a faint track which was reassuring.
I followed it along until I think I found a faint track and then headed up towards the summit. There was very little snow around but the ground was surprisingly dry considering the amount of recent rain. The clear sky had started to cloud over but this was very thin and considerably higher than the Munro tops but it was obvious that the cloud would eventually come in during the afternoon as forecast.
The ground steepened and I had a couple of false summits before I surprisingly reached a broad ridge plateau. I bounded along the lovely broad ridge where the wind had increased to a stiff breeze and all of a sudden I came across a cairn which was higher than anything else. To my surprise I was at the top!, all by just before 11:00 am. Took some photos and then headed back down. This had been quite easy and I hadn’t even stopped as yet, other than putting on an extra layer. I could see the cloud thickening and starting to lower so headed off quickly and was back at the car at 12:30 pm.
