Britain’s highest mountain
still has a considerable amount of snow on its upper slopes and many folk were
clearly having problems with it yesterday.
A combination of slippery conditions and the occasional white-out when
the clouds came down made things difficult.
This was enough to (wisely) deter the various family groups and young
couples who were swarming up the tourist path in clear, dry and occasionally
sunny conditions.
Sarah was out to celebrate
her impending 30th birthday in some style and brought Vicky,
Catherine and Fran along for moral support.
The pre-Easter rush was very much in evidence as we joined the merry
throng of aspirant hillwalkers and headed up the easy slopes from Achintee
Farm.
The girls made reasonable
progress as far as the Red Burn crossing where the intimidating snow wall I had
seen on my last visit in February had thankfully receded sufficiently to allow
us to pass. The zig-zags made for slower
going and we eventually passed the snow-line at about 1,000m where we
encountered increasing numbers of those deciding to retire gracefully.
Fortunately, the intimate
knowledge of the mountain that repeated ascents have given me really paid off
and we were able to navigate our way safely to the top of the zig-zags. From here, we really did get to see very
little, but the girls kept going and after 5hrs of steady perseverance, the
summit shelter loomed out of the murk and the girls had their mountain!
The summit was ours alone
except for a few snow buntings desperate for any dropped crumbs! Alas, it was not a place for lingering today,
let alone for picnics, and we were soon retracing our steps.
On the descent, the same
snow that had posed some difficulty on the way up offered the chance of a
speedy and exhilarating descent as we bum-slid (in some style it has to be
said) our way almost uninterrupted, back to the Red Burn crossing. What had taken 3hrs in ascent, took only
45mins to descend – a right result!
The lower part of the
descent passed uneventfully and we reached the car just before the arrival of
the rain that proceeded to fall, quite heavily, for the remainder of the
evening. Great timing girls!
Negotiating The Remnants Of The Snow Wall
Happy Birthday Sarah!
Check out my plans for this coming year at: http://www.hillways.co.uk/uk/
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