trip report - 2nd April 1997
| Date: | 2nd April 1997 |
| Mountains: | Beinn Sgritheall (974m) |
| Group: | Edinburgh Academy Spring Meet (Kintail) |
| Conditions: | Mild. Continuous light rainfall all day. |
Having mashed my feet the day before, I took the entire ascent quite slowly. This was, however, fortuitous as I was able to collect the map that Tony Baker (previously a teacher at EA) had dropped on the way (2 days later he was to leave his crampons on the hill (a feat that has been repeated more than once by him - expensive!)). But, apart from collecting dropped belongings, this was a day where I was firmly stuck at the back, wet, sore feet, and generally miserable! I remember it well for being a thoroughly unpleasant kind of day.
The top of the Coire was reached at around lunchtime, and after lunch we climbed into the cloud which had occasionally been making sure we were nicely damp. The slopes seemed to continue for a very long time (much longer than the 330m of climbing from the top of the coire would suggest), but eventually we hit the summit.
A splinter group (led by Tony Baker) headed off to tick off the northern top at 928m, but, not being into heroics on that particular day, stayed with the small group that headed slowly round the hill to descend the ridge to the north west of Coire Dubh. The splinter group soon caught us up and overtook, although I began to feel happier as we descended out of the cloud and headed home.
Just in case we were getting too happy, however, as we headed back into Glen Beag the rain came on very heavily, creating a buzzing sound in the overhead pylons which disturbed me slightly. I had images of electrically charged raindrops coming down and slowly zapping us volt by volt. Later in my school career, physics lessons would teach me this isn't very likely to happen!
Wet, cold and with sore feet, I was very happy to see the minibus again that would take us back to the warmth and cups of tea promised at Ratagan.
