Meall a' Bhuiridh and Creise

Meall a' Bhuridh summit bid

Creise summit

Creise, top of the cornice

Scottish skiing

Saturday, 14 January 2012
Distance: 11km, 
Ascent:    1140m 
Time:       5hrs 16mins


Meall a' Bhuiridh     1108m     1hr  50mins
Creise                      1100m     3hrs 13mins

Apparently, South Africa has introduced legislation which allows independent weather forecasters to be charged for getting the weather wrong.  There were several times today that I thought it might be worth introducing something similar here, although to be fair it is seldom that the Mountain Weather Information Service get it this wrong.  After yesterday's sublime weather, we were told that the high pressure would hold and that it would be another glorious day with a 90% chance of cloud-free Munro summits.  Gregor and I examined our Munro lists and discovered that Meall a' Bhuiridh and Creise were the nearest Munros that we had both yet to do.  This is the location of the Glencoe ski area and much of the walk consists of walking up the ski slopes with the indignity of sedentary people passing you on chairlifts or ski tows.

The morning was grey and cold but we assumed that this would burn off as the day progressed so we arrived at the Glencoe ski area by 10:30 a.m. and began the walk up to the plateau along a new track that had been built with a reasonable gradient.  The ground was frozen hard and by the time we reached the plateau at 700 metres, there was a patchy covering of snow which hastened progress.  By the start of the top tow, the steep snow-covered slopes were hard and icy so it was time to fit crampons for the final 250 metres of climb through the cloud and mist to the summit. The day had not improved and even the skiers had that look of despair that is so frequent on the Scottish ski slopes - visibility of less than 50 metres, cold damp air and a patchy piste coated in fresh ice.

A flask of coffee at the summit was our only reward and then into the wind to cross the bealach over to Creise. The wind had blown away the snow so it was crampons off for the stony descent and the early part of the ascent until we reached the steep final snow and ice section of the climb to Creise through the cornice.  It is about 800 metres to the summit from here over rocky ground and we remembered the time when I had dragged an 8-year-old Gregor around these two hills and lost the car keys on a crazy descent from the nearby top of Stob a' Ghlas Choire.  We holed up in the Kingshouse for about three hours playing pool and darts with some soldiers on an army exercise whilst the spare set of car keys were brought out from home by Ailen after she returned from work. The soldiers treated Aileen with the same friendliness they had shown to Gregor as they taught him to play darts and pool. Aileen suggested to her workmates the next day that they should go to the Kingshouse for a fun evening.

On this occasion we decided against taking in the top and retraced our steps which meant putting crampons on again for the steep descent, taking them off for the return climb to Meall a' Bhuiridh and then on again for going down the icy ski slopes.  The visibility had decreased even more and there were very few skiers or snowboarders on the slopes even though it was not yet 3:00pm.  We walked down at the side of one of the ski tows to avoid the peat and heather and were politely requested not to do this again.  The final descent from the plateau was by a new cycle run which was steep, rocky and highly dangerous even when walking.  So the first Munro outing of the year had merely captured two hills and allowed us some practice with crampons and ice axes.