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A great walk
with Ian, who I met through scottishhills.co.uk.
Dumgoyne and Earl's Seat
Having met in
Strathblane, we headed up Dumgoyne first and then across to Earl's Seat.
It would turn out to be a fine winters day on the Campsie Fells during a
spell of cold weather that had already lasted nearly a month. Snow
conditions weren't prime but it wasn't a big problem. There were plenty of
others out that had broken trail already.
But Dumgoyne was extremely crowded. It was a social hill and a lot of
people were out on it's flanks today in the winter sun. And I was
delighted to discover that Ian climbed local hills, did Munros,
Corbetts, rock climbed, read The Angry Corrie and delved into accounts
of Himalayan mountaineering all like myself. I don't think I'd ever met
someone that I could draw as many parallels to me. Either people
only rock climb, don't read climbing books at all or only climb Munros.
It had turned out to be a great day.
Once we'd climbed Dumgoyne, we descended from the windy summit via. the
gully on the north slopes. I usually ascend this way, but it was
different to climb in the top and emerge at the bottom. Then
we headed towards a well beaten track that would take us over Garloch
Hill, Bell Craig and the Ballagan Tops to the final destination, Earl's
Seat.
It was also busy beyond Garloch Hill, but the snow was deep, and the wind had sculpted fine snow
structures and formed wind slab on south facing slopes. We arrived at Earl's
Seat without hitch, it being my third time up here, the first time to
have good views. They were the most extensive views I'd seen from
it's summit. I took a panorama and then we spent five more minutes on top. The
Campsie Fells have real quality to them when the snow is down and when
the wind blows spindrift about and the sun reflects off icy plateaux,
it looks even better.
Descent and Avalanche
On the way back to the car though the real excitement of the day
happened. We'd ended up walking out onto deeper snow, that had been deposited by the
wind. This is known as wind slab and it's not good to walk onto. I went
one step too far out then my foot to dislodged the bank of snow and
before I knew what was going on, snow
was rushing away between my feet. I heard a hissing sound and looked
back as the snow shuffled down the slopes, spilling away like water. It
stopped at the bottom, set into it's new form, and all was quiet just as
if it hadn't even begun.
It didn't lift me off my
feet, it wasn't big enough. But I felt the adrenaline surging and had
learnt the reality of avalanches. These are all things I knew, but
things I now appreciate much more. They are damn scary for one, and when
they come, they'll just begin. No warning, no prompt. I knew the nature
of the slopes I was walking onto, but I went anyway. Don't be a fool and
do that, the only way to avoid them is to heed the warning signs and
steer clear. And they have a life of their own too. That's the creepiest
part.
The irony in all this was that we'd discussed a few minutes previously the fact we'd
both never seen one in the mountains. But there it was, my first
avalanche. Hopefully the second doesn't happen too soon.
But that was the days adventures done. A quick descent alongside
Dumgoyne brought us to the distillery slopes and we bum slid/walked back
to the car.
Panorama
360˚ panorama from Earl's Seat
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