CrianlarichReportNewYear1999



Tuesday 28th December - Monday 3rd January

Time for serious snow!

Tuesday 28th December
The Hiking Club arrived in Crianlarich at a time when it was snowing! There was about five centimetres of snow on the ground down at the youth hostel. The week before had been unsettled but largely cold which dumped huge amounts of snow in the Highlands. Skiing reports reported difficulty digging the ski lifts out of the snow drifts on Boxing Day!

The first day was just a travel day so not much was done apart from shopping in Fort Bill.

Wednesday 29th December
Today was the first hiking day - and a fine day it was too. A ridge of high pressure moved in overnight to give a largely sunny day. Two groups set off today - 1. The mobile phone and GPS (and other gadgets) group went up to Ben More and Stob Binnien 2. Everyone else tackled Cruach Ardrain.

The amount of snow on top was reported to be exhausting with knee deep (often deeper) snow higher up. The windward slopes were, however, scoured clear and so crampons were needed here. Phil Dyer apparently was rang up by his office on the top of Ben More (nothing like getting away from it all is there!).



The day was finished off with a suprise visit by Anthony Dyer who gave up his camping trip due to too much snow. The reception at the Youth Hostel wasn't generally one of "Anthony, good to see you". It was more like "Anthony, what the hell are you doing here?"

The night was spent doing the Crianlarich 'pub crawl' (2 pubs) - between the 'Rod and Reel' and the Ben More Hotel.

Thursday 30th December
Today started off mild and drizzly but finished off with some of the best weather Scotland can ever display. Despite the warmer weather, there was still much snow which displayed classic 'snowball snails', a sign of instability in the wet snow. Again, two groups set off today; one group went up Beinn Chabhair (by Loch Lomond) while the other set off for the Corbett of Beinn Odhar (north of Tyndrum)



Both groups reached their summits - though the Beinn Chabhair group took six hours to reach the summit - due to deep snow and tackling an endless 'false summit' ridge. Still is was an excellent day.

Ashley has announced that he is now a Corbett Bagger - he says they're easier to climb than Munros!



Friday 31st December
Friday was a wetter day - the rain wasn't generally heavy but the winds were chilly on top. The snow was still tough going but it was consolidating well by now.

Only one group did some walking - up to An Caisteal. Anthony did a solo walk up to the Corbett of Beinn Chiurn. Another group went skiing and the rest did easy low level walks.

The rest of the night was spent drinking - it was New Year's Eve after all! Anthony was reported to be drunk (a very rare occasion) after drinking 3 pints of 80 Shillings, a double whisky and being the chief consumer of Katy's 'Russian Vodka'! There was very good violin playing by our newcomer Katherine and plenty of singing to go with it. The editor's memory of events after midnight was a bit 'fuzzy'!









Saturday 1st January
Most people did nothing though Mick McHugh went out to do some navigation practice. He reported it being very windy on top with still plenty of snow about despite the mild weather. Others did a small section of the West Highland Way.



The group split into two tonight with one driving all the way to the Clachaig Inn to see an excellent gig while the others just went to the local pub.

Sunday 2nd January
Today dawned bright with some sunshine - though it got progressively cloudier through the day. The snow remained good above 800m but nonetheless there had been a considerable amount of melting.



One group went out to climb a Corbett - Meall an t-Seallaidh to the east of Crianlarich. It's uncertain as to whether they climbed the neighbouring Corbett of Creag Mac Ranaich. They reported good views on the way up with the top clouded over.

Meanwhile Anthony did another solo walk upto the two munros of Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh - near Bridge of Orchy. He reported snow firming up but also more cloud cover.

The rest of the 'dodgy knees club' did very little - more festering! Overall it remained a dry day - not bad though not good for pictures.

The final day was bidding farewells to the oldies who had to go home to go to work. It was time to go to Glen Coe.

Check out the continuing trip in the trip report for Glen Coe.