Meet Report

12th to 14th December 2008 - Glen Prosen Hostel, Glen Prosen, Nr Kirriemuir

Amid predictions of dire weather for the weekend and an appeal for information on local tea shops a large party assembled at Glen Prosen hostel. Mine wasn't the only car that proved unsuitable for the ascent of the hill and had to be left in the village, but it was the only one which needed a second visit later in the evening to turn the lights off. Sigh!

Saturday morning heralded a frightening apparition in the Hostel. Just as we were about to leave, Helen emerged from the bedroom ("not a pretty sight" - Fiona R), shot through the kitchen, grabbing her flask en route, and disappeared in the direction of the car. She was later observed breakfasting in the car park on KitKats and Guinness.

Saturday saw a cessation in the rain and a large party heading round to Glen Doll for an ascent of Mayer and Dreish where the Guinness-fuelled Helen demonstrated her snow plough abilities by breaking trail all the way from the forest to the plateau. On the plateau a number of people became keen to take a turn at trail breaking, although regrettably not all in the same direction. The cynical would have observed that the snow was less deep there... Order once more restored, the summits of Mayer and Dreish were duly bagged before a descent to Glen Doll where the rain had restarted. Anne and Fiona meanwhile encountered even deeper snow on the west side of the hills. The climbers, Kenny, Alison, Alan and Anne ascended the imaginatively named Easy Gully in Winter corrie. Apparently it had a lot of snow in it. Did I mention there was some snow?

Sunday saw no lifting of the mist for the large party back in Glen Doll for Glen Tirran (a trip instigated by Ian who "isn't Corbett bagging"). This time it was my turn to break trail, as the visibility gradually reduced to zero - white sky, white snow, no contrast whatever. Despite this, Kate and Penny manfully (womanfully?) steered me to the top with (almost) no use of the GPS.

The Graham Badandun Hill yielded no summit view although it offered a pleasantly sheltered walk up. Prize for best view of the day goes to Kenny, Alison and Fiona who basked under blue skies and sunshine on the cunningly selected Moncrieffe Hill.