8th December 2005
An evening grab of my local 8 pointer. It was cold, dark, misty and the skip was long...
GM/CS-012 - Beinn a'Chaorainn - 1050m - NN386851 - 8 points
5 QSOs: 80m CW - 5
The forest track from Roughburn takes you to a junction at NN372822 where a left turn very shortly leads to a little cairn and a way through the woods onto the hillside below Meall Clachaig. This is a good approach but the first section through the woods has now become almost intolerably boggy (swamp maybe a better word). In daylight this is just about avoidable by threading through the trees but in the dark it would potentially be horrifc. Made a mental note not to come back this way!
A straight forward plod eventually leads to the south summit. I arrived in clag and dark a little after 1800 and there was more snow on the summit than I expected so was very careful in moving across to the main summit. The cornice that forms here is a serious man trap that has claimed lives. The east face cuts into the path of the bearing between the two summits but is filled in by the cornice.
This cairn offered a little shelter from the wind but it was very cold - this was going to be a swift activation. With long-wire set up I called CQ on 80m. I was grateful to the following chasers who were worked fairly quickly: G3VQO, G3TJE, HB9DOT, DL4FDM & HB9AFI. The nearest were south UK so with long skip I was not able to work some other UK stations who I knew were waiting. A quick call on 40m went un-answered.
I took a direct bearing off the summit and this wonderfully gave me a quick descent on firm névé to about half way down by linking large snow patches. After this the crust was collapsing so went for linking the heather patches after that! Now out of the clag I was able to set my bearing to the twinkle of house lights at Inverlair which guided me down to the Allt a'Chaorainn. I tried diluted tomato soup in my flask which turn out to be great food but lousy drink so I quenched my thirst at the river before heading back through the woods to the road.
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