Log 1 Mar 2009

BEN LUI (ALTERNATIVE) 1 MARCH 2009

On a cloudy drizzly morning, six people (Laurence, Koon, Noelle, Fraser, Kevin and Ian G) gathered at the car park at the ungodly hour of 7 am.   There was an assumption that there would not be sufficient snow in Central Gully of Ben Lui for a snow climb and that no one was available to lead.
So we all agreed to have an easy day of climbing the Corbett BEINN CHUIRN and if all went well, the Graham Meall Odhar afterwards.

Cars were parked at the lower Tyndrum station and all set out at 8:45 am. Laurence was suffering from sciatica and had planned to do a lowland walk to the base of Ben Lui.
The rest continued up the SE ridge of Beinn Chuirn in light rain.  From about 600m up, it started to hail, then sleet and then snow! However summit was reached about 12 noon.
Plan was then to descend between the crags in the north face of the Corbett but after half a km, we came upon an impass - scary looking crags left, right and centre with steep snow gullies!
As not all had ice-axes, a wise decision was made to retrace our steps back to the summit and descend the way we came.   There was a significant dump of snow and within an hour, all our steps were completely covered. Lesson learnt there was to always carry your ice-axe and crampons in winter!
 
Anyway, the easy day lasted 6 hours 15 minutes, 5 of which was in rain, hail, sleet and snow. However, a nice drink was had in the cosy Drovers Inn.

Report by Koon Morris

P.S. by Fraser Gold.  Even with ice axe and crampons, continuing could have been risky in the very poor visibility, with deep new snow overlying ice.   Crampons would not have worked.