Edinburgh Mountaineering Club: Meet Report
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Ptarmigan Chick - Mike W Looking to Beinn Mheadhoin - Alison C
Ptarmigan Chick - Mike W

Meet Report

17th to 19th June 2016 - Dalraddy Holiday Park, Alvie

This was the second camping meet of the year. After various discussions of possible locations and weather forecasts Dalraddy Holiday Park near Kincraig was selected.

Driving up the road on Friday as the rain chucked it down had some folks questioning why on earth they were going camping. However the forecast proved correct and the rain stopped just south of the campsite. 

On arriving on Friday night Mike and Fiona duly pitched their tent in their allotted slot... everyone else ignored this and camped in the central field. 

Friday night was chilly! So chilly that Gillian had 2 duvet jackets on! and even the midge were almost beaten into submission. Everyone, except Alan had arrived and pitched their tents by 9:30pm so discussions turned to what we were all going to do on the Saturday.  Alan arrived about midnight and was still up before several people!  

Alison, Emma, Mike and Fiona went off on a combined Munro and top bagging mission with Emma starting the day expecting to do one maybe two Munros but ending up doing 3 Munros and 3 tops, oops! We ascended to the plateau via the Goat Track into the clag hoping that the forecast was correct as we headed down Coire Domhain on a compass bearing. Thankfully by the time we were on the first top, Stacan Dubh the mist was starting to clear and by the time we got to Beinn Mheadhoin it had turned into a pretty glorious day. After the third top the party started to split into parts to tag various tops and summits meeting up again at the “obvious boulder” near Creagan a’ Choire Etchachan. At that point Fiona headed on a solo mission to Carn Etchachan with the others heading back over Ben Macdui. On route to Carn Etchachan Fiona narrowly missed Kenny and Alan who'd attempted two different scrambles finding one to be soaking wet and the other covered in snow, in June!!!

Gillian and Margaret after much deliberation on Friday night decided upon the Corbett Carn Dearg Mor which they'd nearly done on a previous meet. The pre hill discussions revolved around whether hiring bikes was an option and whether the bike hire company would let them do a one way hire with the bike abandoned in the middle of nowhere for collection. In the end they decided to walk the whole way and spent a chilled out 90 mins lying in the sun on the summit.

Saturday night was sociable, sunny and almost midge free so everyone sat outside and cooked/ate dinner on a picnic bench which moved rather alarmingly when someone got up / sat down. Kenny tried tightening the bolts with a spanner which improved things slightly but it was still worth holding onto your beer/ dinner just in case! The midge eventually said hello about 10pm and with various folks quite tired from the days exertion sleeping bags were crawled into.

Sunday started sunny but gradually the cloud crept in. Emma headed off to do Beinn a’ Ghlo, Gillian and Margaret headed for Meall na Leitreach with Mike, Fiona, Alison and Kenny heading to Creag Dubh for some climbing where they met up with Fiona M. Climbing continued until rain stopped play just after 4pm. By the time we were heading south down the A9 it was torrential. 

A camping meet with good weather and almost no midges what more can you ask for?

Fiona R