Meet Report
24th to 26th February 2006 - Loch Ossian
This was an eagerly anticipated weekend to one of the remotest parts
of Scotland, easily accessible due to the presence of the West Highland
rail line, which runs from Glasgow to Fort William. Most of the 14 club
members met at Crianlarich on Friday night for the hour long train
journey to Corrour station. The party atmosphere of the train journey,
with the well stocked drinks trolley wheeled up and down was left with
reluctance for the desolation of Corrour's dark 1500' high station.
Nevertheless, a mere mile walk by head torch on a bright but dry cold
night saw us safely to the welcoming, wind turbine powered lights of the
hostel, with Nick, the resident warden of this SYHA Establishment having
the roaring coal and wood fire stove going well. I couldn't help
thinking about the cult film 'American werewolf in London' on
approaching the lights of the hostel, but Nick's friendly terrier dog
was only keen on snapping up spare food rather than unsuspecting EMC
member's jugulars!
Nick gave us a 2-minute briefing as to the do's and don'ts of our stay,
which emphasised the necessity of removing ALL waste, including bleached
tea bags from Corrour Estate. Only compostible vegetable matter and/or
non-bleached tea bags were allowed to be recycled in the compost bin.
It was a novel and I suspect enlightening experience for most members to
be held personally accountable for all their own waste products! Talking
of which, the 'lang drap' out-housed compostible toilets with their own
internal lighting and alcohol based hand wash provision, were
surprisingly acceptable to us townies. Although there were no showers,
the constant hot water for washing and kitchen use was an unexpected
luxury.
With cold polar air from the north and north east prevailing for the
weekend, the forecast was basically set fair, and with the white stuff
established above 2000' this was the first real winter weekend for the
club in 2006. Saturday was a bit disappointing however, being one of
those 'bright too soon' days, with hill tops disappearing into cloud and
freshening winds, giving rise to the experience of considerable
buffeting, a current buzz phrase of mountain forecasters, and poor
visibility near the tops. On Sunday the summits were clear but there was
even more buffeting. Nevertheless, the club stalwarts ascended all the
local Munros and Corbetts, with remoter objectives of Chno Dearg via the
winter climbing crag of Meall Garbh and the Easains above Loch Treig
also achieved. Leum Uilleum in particular, the Corbett above Corrour
station gave a delightful horseshoe walk.
Saturday evening activities were as per usual liberally lubricated
with anaesthetics of choice, and a fiercely competitive game of Jenga
developed. Jenga? Well it looked from a red wine perspective like a
psychological game of building blocks to a height and then skill to
avoid collapsing the built structure. Nick appeared every two hours to
stoke the fire, and late on Saturday evening he stuck up a notice,
saying 'bad news I'm afraid.' Not so! In our isolation we were unaware
that Scotland had beaten England in the 6 Nations rugby at Murrayfield,
and with a Tchaikovsky score. Tchaikovsky? Well, er, the score was
18-12.
Those attending were Martin, Alison W, Jenny, Dennis, Alison C,
Kenny, Alan, Anne M, Iain M, Bill C, Eileen, Paul, Bill B, and Kathy.