Sunday, 16th January 2011

The Wind (by Andrew Collett)

It pulls at your clothes

it tugs at your hair,

it whispers on windows

to make people stare.

 

It rattles your rooftop

it creaks past each tree

it charges down chimneys

and roars with the sea.

 

It climbs with each cloud

it dives down below,

for the wind is with you

wherever you go.

The wind was certainly with us for our trip into the Cairngorms, gusting up to ninety miles per hour, but everyone had a great day trying to battle the ferocious conditions.

The real winners of the day were the winter skills group led by Sandy Murray and Ray Harron, to whom the club is greatly appreciative.

Taking part in the winter skills were Joanne Napier, Bill Lindsay, Rachael Higgins, Claire Procter, Ros Wright, Joanne Chappell, Malcolm Campbell, Corrine Ferguson, Bob Lister, Alice Roberts, Jan Paprocki and Sue Horth.

The feedback from the winter skills was excellent. Some of the comments were:  “A valuable day’s lesson and great fun,” from Rachael; “Big thanks to Sandy and Ray,” from Claire; “I would never believe I could go head first backwards and pivot round using my ice axe, a big thank you from Ros”; “An amazing day on winter skills. Many thanks to Sandy and Ray, a great introduction to a great club”, from Bill; “Learned a lot thanks to Ray and Sandy,” said Joanne, who thoroughly enjoyed hurling herself headlong down the Coire!  “An excellent day’s training,” thought Jo; “Excellent day training in Coire na Ciste and a good experience!” from Malcolm;  “Brilliant! I will feel much more confident on the hill in winter now”, from Sue.

Tackling Cairngorm via the north ridge were Drummond Beattie, Jake Lee, Alan Duncan, Rob Murray, George Herraghty, Kimberly Hallam and Fiona Duncan.

George climbed out of the gully thinking it might be less windy on the ridge (I don’t think so) and promptly lost his hat, last seen heading towards Elgin.

Attempting the ridge they soon decided conditions were too dangerous so they traversed into Coire na Ciste, except Jake who managed to struggle his way to the summit. Alan took a spectacular fall of two feet before arresting himself, although everyone thought he could have made it more dramatic and slid further.

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.
CHORUS:
Val-de-ri, val-de-ra,
Val-de-ri, val-de-ra, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
Val-de-ri, val-de-ra
My knapsack on my back.

Dave Whitelock, Tish Richford, Dave Galloway, Andy Gatenby, Fran Britain and Andy Brooks set off heading for Ben Macdui via the Fiacal Ridge. Sacking that idea very quickly because of the wind, we headed for Cairn Lochan. Sacking that idea (you can see where this is heading, not) we aimed for Coire an-t-Sneachda, thinking we could poke our nose up the Goat Track. Having been blown over several times we lost the will to live and started to head down. With the plenty of time left we headed towards the Chalamain Gap, only to be thwarted yet again, this time by Alt Creag an Leth-choin in full spate. It was clearly now time to head for the Ski Centre café for tea and stickies.

Dave Whitelock