Some thoughts and reports from outings...
Blogs from some outdoor adventures.....
Sgurr an Utha My legs were a little weary after a long hike in the prior days, so I was after a shorter hill day, and after some map analysis I opted for a Corbett I had yet to climb – Sgurr an Utha. Located just west of Glenfinnan it was a bit of a journey to get there, especially given the recent overnight snow. The roads were a bit dicey but I eventually rolled up at the parking layby and started to get ready. The forecast was for snow showers but the skies were blue as I headed through the forestry plantation towards my target. My initial plan was to just blast up the SW shoulder and back down again but looking at the amount of snow and the pathless, snowy rough terrain of the SW shoulder, I decided on the easier option. A land rover track runs in an easterly direction up towards Druim na Brein-choille, and to be honest gives easy walking and gains you a good bit of height before it stops around 450m. This part of the walk was glorious as I was still in the shelter of the hills but as soon as the track stopped the 15-20cm of new snow made things a little more arduous!! The going between Brein – choille and Fraoch – bheinn was slow and I can recall a least three occasions where my leg disappeared down into an unseen bog or burn – giving rather soggy boots (that’s with two sets of gaiters !!). The location was now a little more exposed to the wind and the spindrift was whistling around me and making some lovely shapes in the snow. I was really wishing I had packed my snowshoes now but I carried on with the summit of Sgurr an Utha pulling me on. Every now and then it would disappear into the cloud but I had been lucky, only a few flakes of snow and the majority of the showers had skirted round meJ The views towards Streap and the Loch Arkraig hills was fantastic and in the other direction there was a fabulous view down Loch Beoraid. As much as I wanted to linger on the summit, the icy gales soon saw my getting the crampons on and axe out for the decent down the rocky and knobbly South West Ridge where care and concentration was most definitely needed!! A grand few hours on the mountain and certainly more tiring than expected, although this was probably due to the underfoot conditions J Hope you enjoy the video…
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WilkieMurraySome thoughts and reports from my outdoors activties... Archives
August 2017
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