Club News

This was our third attempt to take the train to Corrour for a day walk at Loch Ossian. Did we get there this time? Yes! Did we get back? Yes! Did we have a good day? Yes .. we had an excellent day!!

I took the train all the way from Glasgow and the others joined at Crianlarich. The weather was dry at the start of the journey then changed to overcast and drizzly. A bit of blue sky appeared just before Corrour and when we stepped onto the platform we were bathed in warm sunshine. This set the pattern for the day with warm sunny intervals and cooler overcast spells with some light showers. The '2 aitches', Heidi and Hilary, opted for a clockwise walk around Loch Ossian and the remaining 5 .. Steven, Jean, Tom, Michael and myself set our sights on the iconic Beinn na Lap. After checking the club archives, I found this would be my first ascent of the hill for 12 years. Where does the time go?

We all set off on the track towards the hostel, hung a left at the first junction and at the next junction the '2 aitches' continued straight on for their walk around the loch and the hill group took another left to gain some height before leaving the track to ascend the hill by the SW shoulder. With a gentle breeze behind us, we made steady progress to the summit despite making frequent stops to admire the views. At the summit the wind was stronger and colder and we ate our pieces in the lee of the cairn while we tried to identify the surrounding hills. We managed to pick out Schiehallion, Ben Alder, Creag Meagaidh, Ben Nevis, some Glencoe hills and the Ben Lawers group.

While at the summit we were joined by 4 others who had cycled along the Road to the Isles from near Rannoch Station to Loch Ossian and then climbed the hill. They thought it was too cold to hang about so headed back down. A few minutes later one of them came back. It turned out she had lost a bag with cycling lights and a pump, valued about £200 in total. She looked around but did not find it and set off down the hill again looking about as she went.

Then Tom found the bag near the summit lochan but no amount of shouting or blowing emergency whistles could attract the owner's attention. In fairness, we were shouting against the wind. So I set off after her and 10 minutes later managed to make contact. My knees took days to recover! Tom caught up with us and handed over the valuable bag to a grateful owner.

The rest of the descent was less eventful. We followed the direct path back to the track where we met 4 other climbers who were just starting their ascent having already climbed the 2 Munros on the other side of Loch Ossian and they also intended to catch the evening train – which they did. We arrived back at Corrour to find the '2 aitches' relaxing in the restaurant having had an enjoyable walk round the loch. Their only hitch was that Hilary had lost her phone en route, but had managed to find it after back tracking to their previous stopping point.

After some good grub in the restaurant the train arrived on time for the return journey. The others transferred from train to cars at Crianlarich and I continued my journey home on the train. An excellent day out but will it take us another 3 attempts to make a second visit?

As usual, a variety of routes and activities was undertaken by the 15 Club Members attending this weekend.

James and Susan Anderson, Ian and Iris Moffatt, Steven and Hilary Anson, Tom and Jean Connell, Gordon and Andrew King, Cornel Brozio, Bob MacDonald and Justin Cullen
were joined by late entrants Alasdair and David Anderson.

	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
James Susan	Steall Waterfall	Carn Dearg Tops to Nevis Tourist Route to Nevis	Glencoe Tearoom on travel home
Ian and Iris	Travel north	Tour of South Morar, Moidart, Sunart and Ardgour	Travel home
Steven Hilary	Travel north	Tourist Route to Nevis (Not known)	Recover gear then travel home
Tom and Jean	Travel north	Tourist Route to Nevis	Travel home
Gordon and Andrew	Travel north	Cruising Loch Linnhe	Travel home
Cornel Bob	Meall an t-Suidhe	CMD and Arete to Nevis Druimarbin and Bidean Bad na h-Iolaire	Glencoe Visitor Centre on travel home
Justin	Travel north	CMD and Arete to Nevis	Travel home
Alasdair and David	Beinn a'Bheithir (Sgorr Dhearg and Sgorr Dhonuill)	Carn Dearg Tops to Nevis	Sgor na h-Ulaidh

James:
On Saturday, Alasdair David and I tackled the Ben Nevis tops from the upper Glen Nevis car park and the route was every bit as "brutal" as Bob had warned on Friday night .. a vertical km being climbed in one horizontal km! We were fortunate that the low cloud rose ahead of us offering great views of the Mamores and a clear view from the summit (the first in 6 summit visits!). Susan had set off up the tourist track at 6am arriving on the summit of Nevis at 2pm shortly after we had met the CMD climbers, Cornel and Justin. A little later Steven, Tom and Jean arrived on the summit. Everyone set off back down the tourist track. It must have been one of the busiest days of the year on The Ben so it was not surprising that we got to admnister first aid to the cut hand of an Italian woman on the decsent and witness the helicopter rescue described by Steven.

The Hotel was great value .. clean and comfortable. The quirky restaurant service was geared towards bus parties. Missed out on after-dinner bingo both nights!

(Alasdair and David had decided to join us late in the week and, there being no room at the Croit, had booked into Ossian's Hostel in the town).

Ian:
On Saturday Iris and I drove up to Mallaig via Arisaig. Mallaig livelier than usual as there was a RNLI gala day in progress. Returned to FW via Glenuig, Strontian and over the Corran Ferry. A great day out with tremendous views out to the islands.

The Croit Anna was a bit tired and the evening meals were pretty poor, but overall for the money couldn’t really complain. Breakfasts were good, showers excellent and parking no problem.

Cornel:
On Sunday it was raining, so Bob and I went to the Glencoe Visitor Centre and had a look around the exhibition and had some coffee.

The Croit Anna is a bit tired on the outside, but our room was clean and had a good shower. Limited selection of beer in the bar. The food was OK (no better than that) and was delivered in a high-speed style. Sometimes main courses arrived while people were still having starters .. but to be fair, they are catering mostly for bus tours. All in all a pretty good stay and good value for money.

Steven:
While walking down from Ben Nevis we 3 became witness to a live Mountain Rescue event with an injured hiker on a stretcher being taken down the mountain, and later being airlifted onto a helicopter en route to hospital. In the excitement of the rescue, my rucsac and walking poles were also "rescued" by the rescuers. Took a while to realise this had happend, and had to walk down +2,000ft without walking poles, and without rucsac contained food and water. It took some time on Sunday to relocate the missing items, which appeared to have spent the night at Belford Hospital's A&E Dept. as it was thought they belonged to the injured man! However an inquiry at the Ben Nevis Visitor Info Centre and a number of phone calls brought the equipment back to me before we headed off back home....and we all lived happily ever after!

Gordon:
Andrew and I did not climb but did have a very interesting boat cruise from the Crannog fish restaurant pier on Loch Linnhe with some great sights inc Ben Nevis. (ps hotel food wasnt great)

Join us at the Counting House, 2 St Vincent Place, from 7pm on Tuesday 6 November
where we'll be talking (amongst other things!) about past and proposed outings over a small libation or two.

The social evening dates are noted in our Outings Programme, and a reminder will be sent by e-mail about a week beforehand.