Thirteen lucky members and guests attended the Winter Mountaineering Meet at Craigallan on 24/25th February and were rewarded with superb weather and conditions: cold and sunny with the hills well covered with good neve.
Various Munros and other hills were visited from Ben Lui in the south to Ben Nevis in the north. Ascents were also made of Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis and Twisting Gully in Coire nan Lochan, both Grade III. However, the overall standard of ice climbing on the meet was raised considerably by the ‘A’ team comprised of Ewan Russell, Sam Farnsworth and Tom Nichols who climbed a pair of Grade V’s: Minus Two Gully on Ben Nevis on the Saturday followed by Stand and Deliver on Aonach Beag the following day. Andy Tomlinson made a notable bid to join the Don’t-have-a-Rucksack-Club when his rolled about 1,000’ down the flank of Beinn a’Bheithir. Fortunately, not only was he not wearing it at the time but he was able to recover it as well. Gareth Llewelyn and Gary Bunting discovered a location to the north of Beinn a’Chreachain where a bridge across the Water of Tulla doesn’t exist. There are lots of such places on this stretch or river, all of them in fact including NN353468 where the OS suggests that there is a perfectly good bridge. They found this most inconvenient as the deep running waters and icy rocks prevented them from reaching said mountain. Teeth were gnashed!
Attendees: Mike Russell, Simon Rippon (am), Ian Winterburn, Gareth Llewelyn, Gary Bunting, John Wooton, Sam Farnsworth (g), Tom Nichols (g) Ewan Russell (g) Aud Russell, Andy Tomlinson, Sarah Wysling (g), Jim Paxman