Friday 18th – Sunday 20th January 2013
DMC’s first hut weekend of the year coincided with 2013’s first week of sustained wintry conditions, after nearly three weeks of autumnal temperatures. It was a snowy drive up to the Grey Corries Bunkhouse in Roybridge on the Friday evening, with blizzards and whiteout conditions at times between Dalwhinnie and Laggan. The ski tourers in the club had optimistically brought their gear with them, but with all December’s snow having gone during the thaw and the new snow having been unable to build up yet due to high winds, it wasn’t to be… Instead Sa turday saw three different groups heading out hillwalking. Most folks headed for the nearby Munro of Beinn Teallach, with many continuing on to Beinn a’ Chaorainn, whilst other groups travelled further afield to Glenfinnan (for Sgurr Thuilm) and even Kinloch Hourn (for some obscure Corbett tops!).
On Saturday evening we tucked into a pub dinner, followed by cake in the hut (two birthdays this week!)
Sunday was also a mixed bag with Cathrine & Howard looking for somewhere to get their cross country skis out, Jon & Hazel heading off to Cairngorm for some downhill skiing, and most others going hillwalking again. In fact, Jon & Hazel also ended up cross country skiing, finding Cairngorm far too busy (due to “World Snow Day”) for the mediocre conditions on the hill and instead taking advantage of the perfect snow down in Glenmore forest. Meanwhile the hillwalkers headed up the Lairig Leacach, meeting a spooky minister on the path. Some continued to the bothy and the rest climbed a snowy scramble up Sgurr Innse, returning over Cruach Innse with some excellent “snow-bumming” (Paul’s phrase!) on the descent.
Paul has also provided one of his trademark summaries of the weekend:
Heavy snow
Crawling traffic
Where the heck does this track go?
Car hill push
Car hill push
Car push
Post 11pm arrival!
Poor fire effort
Early start
Great glen stroll
Nice climb
Tad windy
Great views
Clear summit
Early back to base
Shower and cake before 4!
Wood chopping
Fire starter
Warmth 🙂
Pub scoff
Lost on a mtn. tale!
Early to bed
Lazy start
Cold windy valley
Nice ascent
Tricky down climb
Second summit plod
Bum surfing descent
Snow wade fun
Tootle to car
Home bound
Clear roads