Day of Disappointment

I hooked up with Matt, with the view of strapping in on and having a bit of an adventure. We don't get to climb together that much any more so wanted to make the most of it. After scanning weather forecasts and phoning Di for for beta futher north we had a plan. We woke at 5am, had a quick breakfast and headed for Beinn Bhan in the NW. The snow that was forecast overnight did'nt seem to have appeared, so we were feeling good about the day and psyced to go somewhere new. As we drove the snow got worse and the blizzards came. Are enthusiasum pushed us on and we still had high hopes. On arriving at Loch Carron we encountered a small hill. This proved to be the 1st crux of the morning. We blew the on sight in style as we tried to ferry glide are way up the road. The 1st redpoint was probably are high point. This included a half mile run up and me running and pushing to get every inch we could. After about 6 shots, Matt had mastered the 1 point turn and we head back home with are tails down, but not between our legs. We had a new plan.

We would pick up some extra kit and head down to the Fort and climb Steall Falls. Quick short route, peice of winky. After 7 hours driving we where making our way up the Glen on a very snowy road. we made it to Simiter Buttress before we got spanked again. This time sliding down the road sideways with me pushing the van to help keep it out of the ditch (how much help I was is questionable). It took both of us to push the van back straight and make our retreat out of the glen. We thought about walking in from there, but were more worried we would not get the van back out of the Glen. After the scariest 30 mins I can remember we strapped our eyeballs of the windscreen as we made it out. Not yet fully defeated we had a back up.

Take 2: We met Di Gillbert and Kev Sheilds, who had a 4 x 4, RESULT. However, what we did not know was that if Carlsberg made 4 x 4's, they would not make this one. We managed to get to within 200m of the carpark before we got stuck. Steve Gordon who was meeting Di and Kev cruised up in his skoda taxi (winter tyres folks) and gave us a lift down. What followed was a valient rescue attempt be Alan Kimber and Clients with 2 4x4's which failed and another failed attempt by some folk from the mountain rescue team.

So after a day of almost 9 hours driving we climbed nothing. Hopefully tomorrow will bring better luck.