In the days immediately
preceding this day out, Storm Fionn had taken her toll and dumped so much snow
in such a short period that the M74 was closed because of the number of
stranded vehicles and Police Scotland had, at one point, issued advice to not
use the roads at all. The drive to the
Cairngorms wasn’t too bad in the aftermath but it was obvious that much of the
snow on the ground wasn’t going to be consolidated.
Seven of us left the
comfort of Milehouse Cottage and strode out along the East Highland Way towards
the day’s objectives of Creag Dubh and the Argyll Stone. After a snack stop at Drake’s Bothy the
uphill started in earnest, weaving our way through the forest at the lower part
of Coire Follais. Both the Ordnance
Survey Explorer and Landranger maps indicated a path up the coire but even
using GPS to place us right on top of it, we found no sign that it existed.
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| Drake's Bothy |
Progress was slow as we plodded through unconsolidated knee-deep snow resulting in some colourful language from one of our shorter-legged ladies!
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| Monadhliath from Coire Follais |
It became quickly apparent
that the group was not going to reach the summit and descend in daylight, or
even dusk. Three of our fittest
continued as the rest of us turned tail.
The sky was clear and the view good enough for us to make out a lone
walker at the Argyll Stone and also note the slow progress of our summit
party. Deep drifts took their toll on
them and they also decided to turn around head downhill.
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| The Argyll Stone |
Although we didn’t actually achieve very much on the
day, the laughter and good company will last long in the memory.
