Attempt on A’ Chailleach

We set off at about 09:00 on the Sunday morning with the most honourable of intentions. We were in the blizzard with a wind on the tops of about 80mph, we decided to launch an attempt on the Monadhliath Munro of A’ Chailleach.

I don’t think anybody that was with me on the Sunday morning would object to my opinion that with retrospect this was slightly over-ambitious. Andy and Jan turned back almost immediately. In fact, I hadn’t known that they had started the walk. Sarah and Phil turned back before we reached the top car park, Anne turned back at the car park, and Emily shortly after.

Myself, Nev and Mike battled on for a wee while longer, but it was quite apparent that we would not summit anything that day. About half a mile beyond the car park at most we turned back, at about 10:30. I had thought that we had made decent progress all morning, but later experience through the week would reveal this walk to be one not longer than 20 minutes!

We caught up with Emily almost immediately, though I suspect that she may have anticipated our early demise and awaited our return, and enjoyed a semi-pleasant walk back to the hotel where the rest of the club were waiting to rain snowballs upon us. I was disappointed not to summit, but selfishly I was quite happy to discover that no other members of the party had summited anything that day. Not that I am a competitive sort.

The photographs taken in the afternoon appear quite serene, but the wind would keep its’ strength throughout the day. We went in to Newtonmore seeking food but the cafe was shut, and the pub seemed a little expensive. So being the tight git that I am I went back to the room and ate a tin of Sardines, and began to plan for the Monday

The plan for the monday was to get our own back on A’Chailleach, don’t really like being beat.