Members Attending

Jim Aire; Angus Campbell; Ian Dale; Raymond Evenden; James Duncan Fraser; George Henderson; Susan Henderson; Louise McCulloch (Fri-Sat); Mike Partington (Fri-Sat); Lorn Smith; Gerry Weir.

Apologies

Bill D; Craig S; Ewan S; Tanya MacK; Wallace B.

Intro

The SMC’s CIC Hut was the venue for this month’s meet and, unfortunately, the hotly anticipated tabloid heatwave failed to align itself with our dates (it would eventually materialise in September!) and we braced ourselves for a challenging couple of days.  The hut was erected in 1928/29, by Dr & Mrs Inglis Clark, in memory of their son Charles, a who died from his wounds at Mesopotamia (Iraq) near the end of WWI in 1918.  Born in Edinburgh and a Captain in the Army Service Corps, Charles is buried/commemorated in Baghdad War Cemetery.  The original building was extensively refurbished and extended between 2008 & 2012.

The highest mountain hut in the British Isles is 680m above sea level, at the foot of the North Face of Ben Nevis.

Here is a short film (18mins) of the official opening of the hut from April 1929, worth a watch to see how little the landscape has changed in almost 100 years, but also to see the difference between the original hut and its current, extended layout…as well as some nifty footwork & step-cutting on the hill.

https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/7702

Friday

The forecast suggested this was likely to be the best day of the weekend weather-wise and some were able to take advantage of that.  Least of all Mike P though, who was in Glen Spean and managed to find the strongest of today’s gusty winds on Stob Coire Sgriodain and was forced to abandon at 850m. 

Fraz and Raymond had headed up to Glencoe on the Thursday afternoon, staying overnight at the Alex MacIntyre Memorial Hut at Onich.  Friday morning was looking good so they decided on the relatively easy scramble that is Dinnertime Buttress on Aonach Dubh.

George and Susan meanwhile were on the West side of Loch Linnhe, having taken the foot passenger ferry from Fort William to tackle Meall an t’ Slamain from Camusnagaul, using the track to the transmitter below the summit to good effect.

Lorn and Angus headed a little further North to Loch Lochy.  Thankfully, Mike’s hill was keeping the wind off them and both managed to achieve their respective targets of Meall na Teanga (Angus nabbing the second of the pair that the weather had intervened on back in January at the Burns Meet, once again using the bike to take the sting out of it), while Lorn was on the nearby Corbett, Ben Tee where, more challenging than the wind, was avoiding several helicopter passes with huge concrete blocks dangling from them and swaying around in the wind, for the Hydro works further up the glen (and yet another newly bulldozed track encircling the base of Ben Tee, from the Loch Garry side). 

Incidentally, the view of the ridge from here that includes the other of the Lochy 2, Sròn a’ Choire Ghairbh, is excellent and probably worth extending the walk on those two when conditions allow (I was later told, by the only other person I saw on foot up here today, that Cameron McNeish mentions this in one of his books – though I can’t confirm, as I haven’t read any of them).

More by chance than design, a fair number of the group managed to reach the carpark at much the same time and a party of six headed up initially, with the remainder close behind.  The conditions overhead were pleasant enough for the walk-in but, beyond the CIC Hut, Coire Leis was blanketed in cloud.  It wasn’t cold and most managed the walk-in in shorts and t-shirts.  The ascent is arduous enough, but a strong headwind and heavily-laden packs made it more of a challenge.

Most if not all had opted to leave helmets, harnesses and ropes behind in the cars, given the forecast.

Everyone made it to the hut in a little over 90 minutes and proceeded to get settled-in.  Two climbers were already inside, having spent the previous night and would spend another before walking-out in the morning.

The climbers explained they’d had a tiring couple of days and opted for an early night, rather than accept our offer to join in the evening festivities (possibly probably ruing this decision later!).

Having chosen music over alcohol, but thankfully not coffee or chocolate, Gerry had very kindly lugged his guitar up the track to the hut along with the rest of his gear.  There a was a real sense of occasion about this special place and Gerry belted out the tunes for a good while, particularly as hopes of getting out on the hill in the morning seemed unlikely, due to the ever-increasing wind speeds outside. 

Long after everyone had turned in, George had one of his waking nightmares when Angus returned from the long-drop & began to scale the ladder to his bunk, only to be intercepted by George for trying to “burgle his house”!  Constable Henderson then sentenced the perpetrator to another 4 hours solitary confinement in his sleeping bag!!

Saturday

The two climbers were up and about early and hopefully got some sleep in the 14 hours they were in their bunks but were heard to remark before leaving that “we didn’t know we were getting the Proclaimers in last night!”.  That probably goes down as an insult in terms of Gerry’s guitar playing, but probably more in reference to his freestyling backing singers!

The morning brought heavy rain into the mix with the wind, albeit not as strong but still blowing hard.  Mike and Louise were both to be heading back out the track this morning too and were awaiting a lull to do so, but no-one else seemed particularly keen to venture out and we all sat around the table for a lengthy breakfast and copious amounts of tea and coffee.

When the forecast lull couldn’t decide when to make an appearance, Louise and Mike decided to make a run for it, as we all watched from the shelter of the hut, with the rain rolling down the windows.  We noticed some people making their way up and, having already had a visit from 3 members of RAF Lossiemouth MRT call in to show a new, trainee member the inside of the CIC Hut,  before immediately leaving again to tackle Tower Ridge(!), another 5 members soon appeared and took up the offer of a hot drink and sat with us for the next half an hour or so.  There were a couple of trainees among them and they planned to ascend the Ben via Ledge Route.

A combination of this and a bit of stir-craziness creeping in, inspired some movement from our party with, unsurprisingly, George and Susan first to crack and, from the window, were seen making their way further up into Coire Leis.

Raymond decided he would walk out to Achintee for a “bowl of soup” (45-speak for a couple of pints) via the halfway lochan (Lochan Meall an t’Suidhe) and, eventually, Fraz decided to join him.

Angus, Jim and Lorn decided to head directly up on to Carn Mor Dearg [CMD] and, once up there, make a decision on whether or not to extend it.  On reaching the summit, there wasn’t as much wind or rain as anticipated.  George called and he and Susan had passed over CMD summit in the preceding minutes and were now making their way down the ridge over the Munro Top of CMD Meadhonach, towards Carn Beag Dearg and back to the hut.

The others decided to continue in the opposite direction and see how things were on the CMD Arête, moving carefully over the very wet ridge and made it across the arête, the wind picking up again just as they headed up on to the Ben from the abseil point.  They’d only seen three other people to this point and the summit of Ben Nevis had fewer than two dozen folk milling around in the clag, most of them queueing for a summit photo.  After a quick photo by the summit hut, they headed down and between there and the halfway lochan, passed literally hundreds of ill-equipped walkers, none of whom appeared to be enjoying themselves.  The only smiles they saw on the way down were from the MRT folk they’d met earlier, who’d just topped-out from Ledge Route heading to the summit and fully expecting to be called into action, given the conditions and the condition of some of the path users.

Back at the hut and after a dip under the Allt a’ Mhuilinn stand-pipe, the processes of rewarming, refuelling and rehydration commenced…along with the usual shenanigans of course.

Sunday

After a lacklustre start, the tasks of fixing first breakfast, the clean-up, then the packing up, all commenced before everyone prepared to head off back down the track to the cars.  The weather wasn’t quite as bad today, but everyone was heading for home.

George and Susan had a slightly different route back as canny lad George had located a car park where the only fee was a slightly longer walk, with the promise of a full English breakfast at Dirty Tim’s Delicat’messen (one for the Rikki Fulton/Scotch & Wry fans among you…and Indy pirates) in Fort Bill.

Until next time…at Braedownie, Glen Clova!