Friday 1 – Sunday 3 November 2024
This was a much anticipated meet as an opportunity to revisit a hostel that I had not used in a long time, so long ago in fact that it had still been in the SYHA; and an opportunity to bag the out-of-the-way Munro Beinn Bhuidhe. Plans were pencilled in to travel with Andy, hopefully with the bike (to quicken the less interesting approach). It’s not that I’m unsympathetic, but it was inconsiderate of him to break a leg, shattering my plans like his shin bone. Discussions with Iain, refined my thoughts giving rise to a more interesting route via Glen Shira, instead of the oft used Glen Fyne, and Berenice came to the rescue, transporting my bike and me via a fish supper in Tyndrum.
Remarkably, the hostel is much as I remembered it and, except for needing a few more soft seats to comfort tired old bones, it served us well with a full complement of twenty-two.
Saturday was as dismal as the forecast had long predicted, wet, viewless, and windy. So those heading off on bikes for Glen Shira did so in waterproofs. For the hill I was accompanied by Moritz and Chris H and Yasmin’s navigation kept us right. We were passed by Dominic H, off on a run via the Glen Fyne brewery tap room, and parted company with Iain who had a bigger route in mind to include some additional bumps. Berenice had started out from the hostel with us but she had solo plans for an off-road cycle.
We completed our route without incident, but I cannot say whether it is a better one because we saw so little. As we climbed to the summit, the faster Iain passed us on his way down. It would have served him well to have slowed down a bit later on and thereby avoid falling off of his bike descending the hairpin bends.
One of the alternative popular destinations was to Dalmally to climb Beinn a’Chochuill and Beinn Eunaich. Back to the village, many enjoyed the vicinity of the pub while others took so long in the shower that the automatic lights switched off.
While the two Dalmally hills were climbed by others on Sunday with the reward of excellent cloud inversions, the main party was to the sodden Beinn an Lochain. Too low to breach the cloud, it did reward with Brocken spectre. This short climb completed an enjoyable and successful meet. Hopefully, this was also the feeling of the significant number of new faces. The cosmopolitan makeup of the Club was well represented with Emma from the US, Brezo from Spain, Moritz from Germany, plus other regulars from far off exotic places such as Yorkshire.
- Report by Chris Butcher
