The highlight of a week in Killin was undoubtedly the Lawers' Group
(nearly) on Thursday.
Start: Ben Lawers' Visitors' Centre
Finish: Ben Lawers' Hotel
Distance: 13 miles
Ascent: 3904 feet
Summits: Beinn Ghlas (3619), Ben Lawers (3983), An Stac (3668), Meall
Garbh (3668).
Cloud base: 1800 - 2000 feet (observational)
Wind speed: 40 mph gusting to 60 mph on tops (estimate)
Weather: Snow/hail above 1500 feet (observational)
Temperature: -3C at 3000 feet (guess)
Conditions: Whiteout
Report: We depositied one car at Lawers' Hotel car park at 9am then
set off from the Visitor Centre at about 9.15 with five companions,
Will, James, Toby, Chloe and Jane. As we climbed it soon became
apparent that Chloe, Jane and I would not be able to complete the
whole ridge of five Munros, and Will, James and Toby would go ahead
while Chloe, Jane and I would walk together and miss out the last
Munro. Of our smaller group of three I was the only one confident
navigating by map and compass.
Above 2500 feet the weather thickened and we put our poles away and
got out our axes; the snow was powdery and soft so crampons weren't
necessary. As we continued to climb the wind speed increased and
visibility was very poor so walking on a bearing was necessary. Before
long we reached the summit of Beinn Ghlas. From there it was a short
decent to the bealach then a short but steep ascent to Ben Lawers,
arriving at 12.15. We then continued, just below the ridge to avoid
the corince and the worst of the wind, to An Stac. We looked among
the rocks for somewhere to shelter to eat some food and drink water,
but the weather was too cold to sit about and I didn't want to get out
my shelter in that wind.
It was at this point that things could have started to go horribly
wrong.
I looked for a route down to the Bealach from the top of An Stac, but
could see no way down. I told Chloe and Jane that the decent was too
steep to attempt and gave three choices: 1. return to Ben Lawers and
decend to the road from there along the east ridge. 2. retrace our
entire walk back to the Visitors' Centre. 3. walk northwest for about
200 yards and then follow the bottom of the cliff on steep ground.
Jane said she could see a route down the cliff and off she went,
closely followed by Chloe. Hesitatingly, I followed. Jane was making
good progress down, and then shouted up not to go that way, and
started climbing up. Chloe took the lead down, heading more towards
the east. I stood and watched while Jane climbed up to me and we
watched Chloe decend together. Then Chloe slipped and screamed. She
landed on her backside, tried to stick her ice axe in, and then
bounced head first down the slope, behind a boulder and out of sight.
Jane started shouting after her. I told Jane that the first thing to
do was to make sure that we were safe and led her to safe ground. We
then both shouted after Chloe - no reply.
I mentally ran through to equipment in my bag. 4 person shelter,
crampons, spare dry gloves and balaclava, full lunch, 2 bottles of
water, survival bag and head torch; critically, no rope and no phone.
I always carry a rope when walking in Scotland, and have even had to
use it on a couple of occasions, most recently when Sam dislocated his
shoulder on the scramble to the horns of Ben Alligin and after
'popping' it back in, lost his bottle to decend the steps; belaying
him down the scramble gave him his confidence back. The reason I
didn't have a rope was that Toby had it - but they'd gone on. My
phone I'd inexcusably left in the car and Jane didn't have one, Chloe
would have one, but we didn't know where Chloe was. I told Jane that
we'd have to find Chloe, and if she was hurt wrap her up warm in
whatever we had to spare and then phone for help. I told Jane to stay
where she was, on a snowy knoll with straw-like grass poking through,
and tentatively followed Chole's tracks down.
I started to slip a couple of times, but managed to keep my balance -
and there was Chole, on her feet and dusting snow off. She had landed
head first in a snow drift at the bottom of the cliff. I clambered
down to her followed by a very relieved Jane. Chloe hadn't heard our
calls, and after landing in the snow drift had curled up into the
"foetal position" for a couple of minutes!!!
We decided to get off the hill as quickly as possible. After
consulting the map the safest way off would be to continue to Meall
Garbh, then onward along the ridge for half a mile then decend to the
dam and its access track. Going was slow with the wind, deepening
snow once we were off the ridge and Chloe's additional caution.
Darkness was falling and Chloe was asking for a stop so she could eat
some food. I insisted that we should continue so we could reach the
track before complete darkness, only there, when we were safe, could
we stop. We reached the dam at about quarter to five and hungrily
tucked into our uneaten lunch. We were still at 2000 feet. I decided
that as it was now dark we should follow the track down, not the path.
A hard choice as following the path was about 2 miles to the hotel and
the track about 4 miles plus another 2 miles back along the road. We
got to the hotel and a welcome hot chocolate at 7pm.
All in all, and exhilarating day on the hill, not quite an epic, but
not far off either.
--
Let us have a moment of silence for all Americans who
are now stuck in traffic on their way to a health club
to ride a stationary bicycle. -
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (Oregon)