Edinburgh Mountaineering Club: Meet Report
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Meet Report

24th to 26th August 2012 - Glenfinnan camping coach, Glenfinnan

The weather forecast just before the weekend was not looking good and a bit of a deterrent to other club members who hadn’t booked on the meet but who were considering travelling north and staying close by.  In the end, the weather was much better than expected.

The Glenfinnan sleeping coach was quite cosy but a good, fun meet venue for a small group.

With a damp but relatively bright start to Saturday (and quite a lot of pesky midges!) Anne C decided to stay close by and headed off to the Glenfinnan horseshoe (Sgurr Thuilm; Sgurr nan Coireachan).  Unfortunately the rain seemed to follow Anne on her travels for most of the day and she returned to the railway carriage rather soaked through!  Pete and I cycled into Gulvain and, although not too much further away, enjoyed a much drier ascent, initially in cloud, but later on had some great views when the cloud lifted.

Kenny, Alison C, and Ian set out to brave two rather remote Grahams in Moidart, Croit Bheinn and Beinn Gaire.  They had anticipated a rather tedious boggy approach and were not disappointed.  One rather vicious deep bog snapped and claimed half of one of Alison’s walking poles.  It’s fair to say these were not Kenny’s favourite Grahams!  In stark contrast, Ian thought it was a great walk and thoroughly enjoyed his day out in the hills. :-)

Martin achieved an impressive speedy round of five Corbetts in the same area (An Stac, Rois-Bheinn, Sgurr na Ba Glaise, Beinn Mhic Cedidh, and Bein Odhar Bheag) – 30k in total with 8000 ft of ascent.

Margaret and Gillian tackled a Corbett on the Ardgour peninsula with mixed weather but good views from the top.  They bumped into Mike and Fiona R in the pub afterwards and discovered that they had narrowly missed meeting them at the top of their Corbett.

Saturday evening was a bit more eventful than normal with some bubbly and chocolate cake to mark Pete’s 40th.  Unfortunately a few rogue midges managed to sneak inside the train carriage at one stage.  Gillian came to the rescue with her handy midge repelling lantern which she later discovered was strictly for outdoor use only...!  However we all seemed to survive unscathed.

Sunday was a beautiful clear day – ideal for an assault on Tower Ridge on the Ben.  Alison C, Kenny, Martin, Ian and Anne reported that they had a great ascent of the ridge, with no delays, having pulled passed all the roped parties. Ben guru Kenny kept them on the right line throughout, and the descent into tower gap was sensational above the yawning chasm of Glover's chimney. They emerged on the summit to find hoards of tourists forming an orderly queue to have their photos taken on the trig point!

Pete and I headed slightly east and visited the peaks of Beinn a’Chlachair, Geal Charn and Creag Pitridh: the bikes came in handy again for the approach and a speedy return to the car.   And Margaret and Gillian ventured out to three of Martin’s Corbetts from the day before - An Stac, Rois-Bheinn and Sgurr na Ba Glaise.

Sara S