Saturday, January 23, 2010

Ben Chonzie/ Ben-y Hone/ Beinn a' Chòinnich,



Near Comrie. Cheers to Dave Hewitt for putting up with my general feartyness and lack of fitness. About 150 feet from the top, having seen both ptarmigan and lots of mountain hare (white in winter!)I had had enough. Warbeck's very nice crampons didn't stay on, and I was running out of energy.

The weather closed in, and the circuitous route down, across very icy snow and sometimes in whiteout conditions, was pretty scary for someone like me, who had never been on the hills in winter. Using an ice axe in earnest was a novel experience. The trudge through deep, porridge-y snow to get back onto the path was hard but, as usual, it felt great to have (mostly) been up a hill. Afterwards. Many thanks to Dave and Tessa for their kindness and hospitality.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Good day out - let's go back and get up the top 10 per cent on a nice warm day in summer with lots of daylight. Today was a good example of how guddlesome winter conditions can be: blowy and almost-sunny at the start, reasonable for a fair way up, then bleak and icy high up, a whiteoutish can't-tell-sky-from-ground spell, then some mild mush on the way down. Funny to think that the ptarmigan and the hares are still up there, perfectly happy.

Dave

doug small said...

tragic that my crampons failed despite the extensive induction. sheila and i were wandering about in the mildest of west coast conditons.

Great Scot Photography said...

Looks a bit colder than the trek you made up all those 1,500 wee steps on Gibralter some years ago.