Glas Maol, now closed to pedestrians

Glas Maol, now closed to pedestrians!

As it heads towards winter Glas Maol (GM/ES-012, WAB NO17, Trig TP3372) becomes out of bounds to pedestrians.  As the highest point of the glenshee ski area that's understandable.  But before the end of November it should still be accessible, shouldn't it?

It's a fairly straightforward walk from the ski centre of about 10-12km roundtrip and 400m ascent on terrain that is reasonable.

By the time we got to the top of the first chairlift (walking!) we found that things were a bit snowier than we'd reckoned on

From the top of Meall Odhar (922m) as we started on the final steep pitch it became quite difficult going, a good cornice had formed already around the bowl and the snow was starting to get up to knee deep.

Eventually we did make it to the summit.  All the way up we had been taking compass bearings of the route we should take if it turned bad,  320 degrees pretty much all the way. This would turn out to be a good thing...

At this stage the weather wasn't so bad, not too cold and not too windy - surely there wouldn't be  repeat of Ben Tirran?  So we got the radio set up and I got to work....

And how did the radio go?  Well not so great to start with,  a bit slow, and then the wind started to pick up and the snow started to blow and then it started to snow properly and the temperature started to drop.  After my 4 qsos, I was seriously tempted to say - that's your lot!  It didn't help that there was no mobile signal on top,  Ian did manage to wander off a bit to at least post our operating frequency but much wandering was discouraged due to the depth of the snow!  We'd been rather hoping the summit would be windswept - it wasn't.  We did manage to do 10 minutes on 40m with 8 qsos and then wacked the coils in to see if there was anyone waiting on 80.  There was!  And we made a further 5 there.   It was clear that things were going downhill quickly and so stuff trying to do 20m we decided to evacuate.  This is what a log written in full on winter gloves and then covered in wind blown snow looks like:

So we got everything packed up as quickly as possible.   It really is difficult to put up and take down aerials and connections when you daren't take off full on winter gloves!

After a quick swig of soup to try and warm up a bit we started to head down.  The eagle eyed may spot that you cannot see anything behind Ian,  it quickly became clear that we had about 20ft max of visibility.  Why not follow our tracks from the way up?  Gone, covered in snow.  Thank God we'd taken a good return bearing on the way !  As a lesson in what can happen, we'd started out thinking we could suss it without following it, within a few metres we were heading 50 degrees off the right route!  It was time to start being very very careful.  Have a look at the map at the start,  very near to the route we needed were vertical crags,  and we already knew there was a snow cornice there...   Next problem.  Everyone says - "take a bearing to a land feature and then walk to that and then take your new bearing and so on".  What do you do when a) there are no land features visible, all gone, covered in snow and b) you have very reduced visibility.   This was becoming tricky.  Thankfully there were some visible darker patches where clumps of heather made for less snow depth and we were able to take bearings on those and make very short legs.

What should we have done?   Well we've discussed this and the best thing would have been to send one person on ahead with the other staying stationary, and leapfrog like that.  It'd be better with 3 people because you can then see that you're following a straight line, but you have to work with what you have.  I'd love to hear a better technique if there is one!!

Anyway,  we didn't do too bad and ended up exactly where we wanted to be and started to get some visibility for the first part of the steep descent.

We were very glad of the walking poles, all day, but particularly on this difficult stage

But basically we were just grateful to have got off, and from the 900m mark downwards it all started to get a lot easier

And by the time we got down to the 750m mark it was time to stop to finish off that soup that we'd been too cold to enjoy on top!  Even if the snow did startto fall with a vengence!

So, it was all a bit of a surprise, there are some who've asked why we didn't wait till we'd get the winter bonus??  Ha ha are you kidding,  by then this will be seriously off limits!

What a difference a (fort)night makes

After Ben Tirran a couple of weeks ago we were hoping for a something a little less exciting.  The forecast looked OK (and I treated it with my usual caution) and fancied something we'd not done for a while.   We've walked Monamenach GM/ES-028 in WAB NO17 a couple of times before, always from the Glen Beanie side.  The Swift declared that if I wanted to walk it again, he wasn't coming...

It's not as if it's a particularly high or remote mountain,  just that the terrain to get to it from Glen Beanie is deadly.   There are really nasty peat hags and bogs.  The first time we walked it there were also really deadly snow bridges across the very deep gullied streams.

OK, lets try from Auchavan - the Walk Highlands reports describe a track and a reasonable path to the summit.  It's only about a 4.5km walk up, but 450m ascent so not exactly flat.

There is ample parking by the burn which was in good spate!

The walk starts from there and heads pretty much straight up to the bealach,  the tops were shrouded in cloud

From the bealach the views opened up beautifully to the south, here you can see Mealna Letter, another sota summit done several times.

And looking down to Auchavan

As we got to the summit, it was as though we were chasing the clouds away and the views around started to open up, sorry, as usual i couldn't decide which pictures not to include, so you get the lot.

So, what of the radio bit?

Well, quite good actually.

We managed to get active at exactly the time spotted.   We made a contact on 7162, but there seemed to be something going on there so I announced my intention to qsy and a lurking m3feh popped up to say 7165?  And  there I went.  And then it got busy!  Over the next 20 minutes I had 34 qsos in the log, with some very big signals coming in, the usual report was 59 and even with my 4watts out many of the incoming were 59 too!  It's a while since I've had a good pile-up on a summit.  There was one s2s on 40m, Juerg hb9bin/p.  Very pleased to get some into the log that I've not heard for quite a while on 40m,  Mick m0mda, Esther and Ian gi0aza/b and  GMs.   It's a long while since we had such a general opening on 40m.

A quick visit to 80m netted Ian, Esther and Karl again along with Steve mm0xpz.  80m seemed a bit slow and I was getting a bit cold.  I'd put my cagoule over my normal walking jacket just to keep in some heat, but that wind was getting pretty keen.  The temperature on top would be about +3C.  So time for a break, some hot soup and a wander around flapping arms!

A quick visit to 20m gained another two s2s contacts also in HB9.  And  I was very surprised to be called by 3 US stations, ki4svm and ab4pp in NC and aa1vx in MA.   Not too bad for my 4 watts out to a dipole.

But, by this time the cold was starting to become unpleasant and I had started to shiver a bit.  My minder declared I was starting to go blue,  time for a sharp exit!

And to head down to the newly re-opened GlenIsla Hotel for a pint of Harvieston Bitter and Twisted, by the log fire.

Another Grand Day Out