March 2015 Bus Meet Report: Drumochter – Moray Mountaineering Club

After many recent Bus meets with horrible weather conditions, this turned out to be one of those days when you just had to be out on the hills! Despite weather reports indicating low cloud and poor visibility, it became obvious as we travelled down the A9, that the weather reports were completely wrong! We were joined on this meet by 3 members of the Inverness Back Country Ski Club, and these hills on the western side of the Drumochter Pass provide excellent terrain for ski touring, with a starting point of 450m! There were 25 people on the Bus and Andy L also joined the group after a few days hill walking in the Trossachs.

First off the bus, just north of Dalwhinnie, was Bob Weeks who made a direct ascent of the Graham, Creag Ruadh. He met some hares on the hill but couldn’t keep up so made his way back to Dalwhinnie for a snack attack at the “Snack Shack”. “If only every walking day was like this”, he said.

Next to go were the ski party including Joe, Dan and Bob Mac who skinned up to Sgairneach Mhor before skiing down some wonderful wide open and vast snow slopes in superb conditions. Up again they went to Beinn Udlamain for another few runs before finally heading down the gully via some slushy bits and heather to the bus. If you have not tried ski touring this would have been the time and place to do it. Andy B also got off the bus at Coire Dhomhain and went up on to the 2 Munros of Beinn Udlamain and A’ Mharconaich before returning to the bus.

Photo by Dan M

Photo by Joe G

The largest group of Dave McR (back at the Club after 20+ yrs?), Bill, Kevin, Alastair, Andy L, Tom, David T, Ella, Lucy, Brent, John H, Ray, Graham M and David BD alighted at Dalnaspidal for a traverse over the 4 Munros via the Corbett, The Sow of Atholl. After the usual slog up the first pig, this was a delightful stroll over rolling snow covered terrain with views as far as the eye could see. This group eventually split in to two with the slower group savouring the day, stopping for lunch and watching the skiers glide down the ski slopes far from the madding crowds!

Photo by Andy L

Photo by Kevin R

Sue and guest Salena also began their walk from Dalnaspidal and they had a pleasant stroll along Loch Garry to the waterfall, before returning to the bus via the A9 cycle path. The remaining members of the party, Mandy and Fiona C, stayed with the bus back to Balsporran and then walked up to Geal-charn and A’ Mharconaich with great views of the Ben Alder hills across the long trench of Loch Ericht.

As everyone was back at the bus by 4.45pm, there was plenty of time for a long Pub stop at the Cairngorm Hotel and even a few dodgy jokes from Tom! And remember … there are really only 3 sports – Mountaineering, Motor racing and Bull Fighting. All the rest are just games!!

Report by John H.