Long time no post, and then a quick posting....this may be more typical, at least unless the more inhabited regions further south. a quick update to fast forward to Kyleakin on Skye. As per Gill's posting lots of hard goibng with icy snow, soft melting snow and some high winds, but on balance very lucky with the weather so far. Have now done all the summits north of the Inverness to Gairloch road, and not had any wet grim days (apart from overnight a few times, which is doubly satisfying when it stopped. first night in the Fannichs after Gill last departed was very grim with heavy snow falling...however mindless optimisim was rewarded the following day!). Spent five days camping, first in the fannichs and then taking a loop north and east to do the peaks previously missed out due to heavy going. After that a stay at the Dundonnel hotel (again very stormy night - extra distance outweighed by staying dry!) and then down through the great wilderness of letterewe and fisherfield to emerge at Kinlochewe and pick up the bike left there a week and a half ago. A few days delat was probably useful too. An Teallach could have been (too) scary a few days previously as well but was ok as the snow was melting and so good and soft to kick into.

Just finished a long day cycling to Skye to meet Chris tomorrow for Blaven, then Bob Sunday to Tuesday for the main ridge traverse, then if any bits missed out due to bad weather might be able to rope in Chris again to catch up. Hopefully have good conditions for this as a) its most technical part and b) there were a lot more hills on the way over than I thought there would be (more pushing the bike). Anyway, after that back to Torridon for some hopefully less snowy epic days with Gill again...

Well I met Graham on Friday evening as planned at the end of Loch Glascarnock. He had been up Ben Wyvis on Friday and even managed to get a view at one point.
The plan for the weekend was to do the 6 Munros round Beinn Dearg, 4 on the Saturday camp high up the 2 on the Sunday. Friday evening was a lovely evening, hardly a breath of wind and Saturday dawned to a bright and sunny day.
We set of up the valley to approach Beinn Dearg from the south west, and avoiding what locals and other walkers had been describing as the inpassable river. After we started gaining height we came to the snow line which made walking a bit harder as you weren't sure if the snow would hold your weight or if your foot was about to plunge in the knee high snow as it was begining to melt slightly. We met a little frog on our travels which has jumped out a little melt hole. We got up really close to it and it didn't move at all, but you could see it was still breathing. After quite a slog up through snow we came to the cairn at the top of Beinn Dearg, but only stopped for a we while as it was fairly windy. We decended down to the corrie and back into sinking snow again. By this point time was getting on so we quickly climbed up Cona' Mheall - I enjoyed this one much better as it wasn't nearly as high and a bit easier going as there were footprints to follow. At the top it was blowing a gail and some hail stones thrown in for good measure. We decended then started to look for some where flat enough and snow free to pitch the tent. I struggled to stay awake long enought to eat my dinner.
On Sunday morning we awoke to find a slight covering of snow on the ground. Graham then set off to do either 1 or 3 munro's while I stayed in my sleeping bag and slept some more. A couple of hours later Graham returned after climbing one of the hills to find me still sleeping. The walking was still fairly hard going so our new plan was to do Am Faochagach and go back to the car - definatly OK with me. We had a lot of good views on Sunday and some snow/hail showers mixed in.
The return route unfortunatly did take us back out to a river, the one described earlier and indeed that was the case. In places fairly fast flowing and not nearly enough stones above the water to cross easily. There was no option but to get wet feet. We found the widest part of the river that was also quite slow moving. Graham decided to take his trousers and socks off to wade across, I just went as I was as I'd already discovered my new waterproof trousers didn't work so couldn't really get much wetter anyway. Graham went first and like a sheep I followed. I took a few steps before the water came into my boots and it wasn't nearly as cold as I imagined it to be. At the other side I took my boots off to tip out the excess water and wring out my socks. From there it was only a short walk back through some bogs to get back to the car. I was definatly looking forward to dry shoes, a hot shower and a pint or 2.
On Sunday night we stayed at the Kinlochewe bunkhouse, where I slept very well. On Monday we had a rest day driving a bit round the west coast and dropping of a couple of extra food parcels for Graham to collect in a week or so.
On Monday teatime I left Graham at the exact same spot as he got in the car and headed home. He has since climbed the 9 munros on the south side of the Ullapool raod.

Ullapool Thursday morning. Weather warmer but still quite grim - very strong winds and some heavy rain. Yesterday took 4 hours to cycle 23 miles to Ullapool and was very hard going against the wind. Walked up quite a lot of the hills, and even then was occasionally putting the brakes on to avoid being blown backwards. What's more the teashop at Elphin was closed - wah!! So sheltered behind a phone box for some chocolate biscuits instead.

Much pondering on best plan from here - original plan to do 2 days backpacking round the Beinn Dearg group, but conditions forecast to continue wet and windy for today and tomorrow. Alternative would be to cycle on and do Ben Wyvis tomorrow, keeping the others for the slightly better wather forecast over the weekend. On the other hand that would increase the total cycling distance against the wind, which doesn't appeal! As a compromise will spend the morning recuperating, then cycle south. If it looks feasible will walk in to camp as high as can find a sheltered spot - if tomorrow is ok then would be able to do all six summits, if totally grim can retreat again and re-plan from there.

On the plus side should be well acclimatised to challenging weather after this week!

Writing this at the Inchnadamph Lodge Hostel, Tuesday 11th. So far everything is in fact on schedule, but some fairly epic days out...

Sunday climbed Ben Klibreck with Gill. Didn't get off to a good start, as we managed to make the map disappear. Not sure how - we didn't see it blow away, but equally it was't in the car when we got back. Anyway, continued to the top, relying on being able to follow a south or south east bearing back to avoid steep ground to the west. Slow going through snow to start with, but rewarded with an almost alpine view along the snow plastered ridge, complete with sunshine, cutting wind and spindrift blowing across. The upper section was extremely icy, much more so than Hope, and to make it worse we got about 1 second of view before the storms closed in and made it almost complete white out. First time that Gill had used crampons - 10/10 for getting up and down! The group shelter was again invaluable, allowing a really comfortable stop in what would otherwise have been fairly grim conditions. We then carried on along the ridge in alternating poor and total lack of visibility, following a bearing S then SW. This was very effective in avoiding the steep ground...unfortunately too effective as we overshot and came down the wrong side of the mountain! This wouldn't have been too much more effort, except for the intermittently waist deep snow on this side! Eventually emerged at the Crask Inn, 4 miles south of the car, after 10 hours on the hill. Michael from the Crask Inn gave us a lift to pick up the car, and we stayed in the cottage with more great food. Gill had been planning to leave that evening, but due to the late return set off early next day instead. She claimed to be still planning to come back next weekend, maybe?!

So, Monday, after continuing the unbroken run of cooked breakfasts, headed over to the west coast on the bike. About 45 miles, didn't stop too long due to the biting wind, but impressive views of the snow covered isolated peaks out to the north west. Arrived for two nights at Inchnadamph lodge, below the next objective - Conival and Ben More Assynt.

Tuesday dawned not exactly clear but not too bad, so set out up Conival. Athough warmer than it had been there was low cloud and still a fair bit of snow, so somewhat apprehnsive of what conditions would be like. Made steady progress over Conival though and onto the mile long ridge to traverse to Ben More Assynt and back. This again was fairly straightorward to start - although visibility was poor there were enough rocks visible to gve some contast, and the lack of snowfall had left ocasional footprints to follow. Further along however the snow built up and made it very hard to see anything much (spent a long time traversing along the side of what probably was a cornice free ridge, but as I couldn't see it...). Also, the wind got up on this bit, so when I got the summit block I had to kind of lie onto it using my ice axe to avoid being blown sideways. I think it was the summit. There was no visible cairn but a kind of tor / block thing. I went a bit further down the other side and established that the ridge a) went down, and b) changed direction, and also counted paces back to a lower summit to establish that, to within the scle of a 1:50000 map, I had been in the right place, but there could have been a higher feature 10 yds away and I might not have foud it. Anyway, shall count it as climbed unless anyone lets me know that there is a 60' cross on the summit or something.

So back down and not too stiff, but definitely hoping for a spring thaw. Have had some memorable hill days, but this could get tricky if it carries on like this! Anyway, an easy cycle to Ullapool tomorrow, for another hostel, fih and chips etc.

A good start - 1 done, 283 to go! Woke up to find several inches of snow but the sun was shining. Good views of Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope. Unfortunately by the time we were approaching the summit the cloud had descended - not total white out but definitely Scottish winter conditions, hoping that it starts to melt over the next few weeks or this is going to be rather hard going! Me and Gill sheltered under the group shelter on the summit, very effective even with spindrift blowing in under one edge. Gill then produced a bottle of champagne! (small, so as not to interfere too much with locating the edge of the steep cliffs in the distinctly poor visibility). Weather broke down even more on the way down and finished in heavy snow and rain. Gill then drove back to the Altnahara B&B...while I cycled back in the pouring rain. A bottle of wine on the house from Mandy and Lindsay to set off the trip was a good end to the day however - cheers!