Roybridge (Jan 2013)

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

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