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Weather/Conditions: Sunny
and fairly warm to begin with. The previous night had been cold and
brought snow to these hills, which is a rarity in itself. Once we were up high, a
snow-bearing shower moved in from the south. It turned out to be a 'sheep in wolves clothing' though, to use
a well known term, as it culminated into moderate snow showers and
nothing worse. Descent brought a fantastic sunset and a return to blue, clear skies
as we walked back in the twilight.
Distance/Ascent/Time: 7km / 450m / 4h 55m
Accompanying: Tom |
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This was my first time
out on the hills with good friend Tom, with who I play in metal band
Solstheim with. My one free day a week is a Saturday and Tom, without fail it
seems, works on this day. On Sundays I'm almost always free but on
Wednesdays I leave school at midday. So we planned our first walk
together for this Wednesday and chose to start from Strathblane and
climb some of the Campsies. These hills are the closest to me and so
travelling wouldn't take too long. Not when we started late and darkness
was coming at 6pm.
Once back from school, I packed my things which watching the weather and
overall conditions. Snow had fallen overnight and the mountains were
blanketed. This was good news for the Campsies rarely have snow, and
rarer still is that I'm free to walk them when they have.
I picked Tom up from the train station at 1.50pm and we headed out to
Strathblane from there. I'd brought along a lot of gear, more than I
would have had there been no snow, of course, but I piled things in the
car beforehand and decided in Strathblane what we'd bring and what we'd
leave.
Ascent to Slackdhu
We left (1.20pm) followed the private road from the monument as I've done many times
before and cut down to the river that would eventually lead up to the
slopes of Slackdhu. The going was rough here but I know of no other
easier ways onto Slackdhu. We first climbed down the river bank,
negotiated thick undergrowth and this led us out onto moorland. We were
just starting out but didn't get through without a fight. Slackdhu,
laden with snow lay above us and the line of cliffs along the escarpment
presented no easy ways up. The only realistic route up could be found by
negotiating the first break in the cliffs which lay 1.5km south-east of
the summit. The ground steepened as we climbed and we aimed for a notch
in the hill where the cliffs ceased to bar the way. Up here, it was
steep and the combination of snow and wet grass made it rather
hazardous. I didn't make too much of the exposure, just kicked firm
steps into the grasses on the way up and blanked out the drop. It's
interesting to see how the exposure on
Aonach Beag at the
weekend before had got to me a little but here I was not bothered in the
slightest. More step kicking brought me over the top of the escarpment
and the walking would certainly be easier beyond this point.
The day so far had been a mixture of blue skies, sun and cumulus clouds.
There had been a few brief showers in he morning but from our current
vantage point on Slackdhu, I could see that a huge snow shower sat at
the south end of Glasgow. Although there was little more than a breeze,
I checked wind direction and judged that it must be heading straight for us. As
we climbed, it progressively swallowed up Glasgow and when it arrived
visibility dropped and snow began to fall. Once 'inside', the conditions
weren't too bad and the approaching wall of grey that had been coming
turned out to compromise of some snow falling and with no wind to carry
them. had there been substantial wind, I'd imagine that they'd turn into
bullets...
Now we were in cloud and several inches of snow lay underfoot, direction
was hard to determine and I programmed
the summit waypoints into the GPS. Finding the top had been difficult enough when I was here in sunny
weather back in 2007 so stumbling about in near-whiteout would have been
no fun.
Somewhere near the top, I put my leg straight through a frozen lochan
(Could you get "lochans" in this part of Scotland?) and some water
seeped in through my boots. So I took the opportunity to put on gaiters
and at the same time tried out my new crampons: Grivel G10s. They
turned out to be far easier to use and work with than I'd anticipated
which I was glad to know. Additionally, the straps were immensely easy
to use with cold fingers and there was almost no fiddling about. A
fantastic design. From here we continued up the final paces to the top
where we were met with the small summit stone. (4.30pm) I'm not
knowledgeable enough about the uses this plateau is put to, although I'd
be interested to know what use these engraved 'markers', almost, are put
to.
Descent and sunset
We didn't stay long at the top. We took a fair amount of pictures but
the camera had to go away for it was getting wet. From the summit we
headed in a north westerly direction intending to drop steeply to
"Stonen Glen" before taking the river to the track and the track back to
Strathblane. I was having a brilliant time and now that we were
heading down it wouldn't matter what time it got dark, the only way to
go was down. Additionally, I knew the terrain well now and we should
definitely get back to the track before nightfall at least. I'd
agreed to meet mum at the memorial (I'm still getting lifts from
parents. Still not driving, but hopefully I'll change that soon...) and
so it put a restriction on the time we could take.
We headed over the edge of the plateau and onto steeper terrain. With
crampons, I had an excellent grip with the ground and took perhaps too
steep a route down. This resulted in some problems for Tom who on
several occasions slipped on some rather steep snow slopes. Below lay
crags and so an unstoppable slide would not have been terribly good
news. There was no ice lying to warrant the use of crampons but the snow
was certainly of the slippery, clinging type and Tom ended up using a
trekking pole to stop a slide. I gave him my axe for I had crampons on
and we headed onwards, getting past the crags and onto an area where
we'd just have steep slopes to contend with. Then, as we worked our way
down, clouds began to break to the west. And then the sun began coming
out.
That "muted" light effect that I've always been affectionate about
showed and moments later the clouds totally cleared. The sun was setting
and to be presented with this scene out of nothing blew me away. But it
was nearing 5pm and we were to be down for 6pm. This plagued my mind a
little, I'd sit here until the sun went down and then get down by torch
if needs be, but if you've made a schedule stick to it. The snow on the
surrounding hills glowed the colours of the sunset but elsewhere, the
shaded slopes and clouds were toned cold blue. I just wanted to sit and
watch but as I walked I found I could enjoy the the sun go down anyway.
We began to follow the burn that leaves Stonen Glen, following only
until the ground became too steep. From here we left its banks and found
the path coming off Dumgoyne. The sun had nearly set by this point, the
hills were toned blue in the twilight and we followed the track along
back to Strathblane.
The clock approached 6pm, and then passed. Mum couldn't wait too long -
she had other things on and it wasn't for me to keep her waiting but we
weren't too long over our 6pm return time. We arrived back at 6.15pm
just as darkness fell proper and our timing couldn't have been better.
To Tom I'd steamed ahead a little at points for while I'm a little
regretful about but in retrospect, our timing couldn't have been at all
better. It was a bit of an epic walk, nevermind Toms first hill in a
while but we got down before dark and were well timed to be where we
were as the clouds cleared and the sun set. A damn good walk.
Panoramas - Sunset from Slackdhu's slopes
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