First of all, a warm welcome to Gillian (a new member to the club) and Fiona ( a “new” member to me).
9 members (Gordon, Sean, Rob, Alistair, Fiona, Ray and Gillian) plus 1 guest and 1 dog set off with great plans to tackle Ben Wyvis on Sunday 21st January. There were another 2 members on this adventure – but they had to call off due to work commitments. So, at the later start time of 8:00 at Elgin car park some of us met up to arrange some car sharing. Unfortunately, with the temperature at -5C one of the car keys started playing up. We eventually abandoned the car sharing idea and at 8:20 set off for the Ben Wyvis car park. We did, however, manage to get to the Ben Wyvis car park for the agreed 9:45 start, where the rest of the group were patiently waiting on us.
The snow was quite deep in the car park and on the path through the woods. There had been some discussion about the deteriorating weather conditions that were expected in the afternoon – but it looked such a good day as we wandered through the woods.
However, as soon as we broke cover form the relative comfort of the woods then … the path disappeared under quite deep snow and we could see spin drifts coming off the summit ridge. We persevered upward for a short distance before meeting 2 hillwalkers who decide to call it a day. Their advice that the snow was getting deeper (too deep for my dog) and the slow progress I decided to turn back with my dog along with Ray. The others struggled on for about another 15 minutes but found it difficult to make progress with the wind and snow and ice! Eventually, they decide to turn back – after it proved difficult not to get blown off the path and ridge, even with crampons on!!
Anyway, everyone enjoyed the day out – and with most of us driving there wasn’t the opportunity to stop for a well-deserved refreshment.
Anyway, 1-0 to the hill today. My thoughts when I got home were… “why didn’t we go on the Saturday when the conditions were much more amenable?”
Perhaps, we’ll revisit Ben Wyvis for a summer car meet!