Meet Report
31st December 2004 to 2nd January 2005 - Invergarry (New Year)
The weather on Hogmanay this year was uneventful and so all the club members
arrived safely at Invergarry in plenty of time to see in the New Year. We
munched continually throughout the evening as no sooner was one offering
demolished than another appeared - crisps, nuts, Pringles, Christmas cake,
chocolates, Dilly's home-made brownies etc. etc.
We awoke on New Year's day to find "heavy and prolonged" rain was the only
weather on offer. The club therefore split into two roughly equal sized groups
- one of mountaineers and one of sensible people. The mountaineers (Hywel,
Kenny, Bill C, Bill B, Christopher, Alison W, Anne C, Keith) chose mainly
Corbetts & Graham's (the shortest ones available) - most made it to the top
although all returned soaked from a mixture of rain and blizzards. The sensible
people drank tea, red books and did jigsaws with the "Most difficult jigsaw in
the world" being conquered before lunch. A brief let up in the rain in the
afternoon allowed everyone to get out for a little while. Unusually Richard
joined the sensible people - 'What's the point in going out when you're going to
get soaked and not see anything'. It's never bothered him before....
Dinner on New Year's day was the usual mammoth affair with all contributing
to either the preparation, cooking or washing up. The after dinner quiz was
provided by Richard with the "girls team" winning (we cheated but the boys
didn't notice!) the bottle of bubbly. The boys team won a "special" bottle of
English wine which had obviously been around a while - the label had a
competition to win a flight on Concorde (closing date June 1998).
We woke on the 2nd to snow showers and strong winds. Bill x 2 and
Christopher drove up to Morvich and climbed Sgurr an Airgid whilst Gillian and
Anne R, Alan R, Hywel and Cathy all managed Corbetts at Loch Arkaig. Richard
climbed a Graham near
Kinlochourn and Kenny, Alison x 2 and Fiona climbed Sron a Choire Ghairbh from
Loch Lochy. Everyone had similar weather with some views on top but extremely
strong winds, snow showers and driving snow in the face. Dennis, Jenny, Tim
and Julie did low level walks and others went home.
Dinner on Sunday was another epic with enough mulled wine, soup, main course
and pud to provide a second dinner for everyone. We also had a huge cheese
board with 15 different cheeses to sample. After dinner entertainment was Top
Gun with Bill B bemoaning "crap American films" and Bill C exhorting Kelly
McGillis to remove certain items of her clothing.
The weather on Monday morning was dry but otherwise didn't look particularly
promising. Alan, Anne R and Hywel were staying on and so headed off to Glen
Shiel to climb a Corbett. Bill x 2, Christopher and Gillian had
plans in Glen Roy. Alison W was heading for the Fara at Dalwhinnie whilst Kenny
and Alison
were going to climb "something". Others headed straight home with heavy rain,
strong winds and the complete lack of cars at the Creag Meagaidh car park
confirming to Cathy and myself that going straight home was indeed a wise
choice.