Amazing break in weather for Blabheinn; November 27th
A night of mad storms with smashed windows and huge garden items thrown around left my hopes about the weather clearing seeming hollow as dawn arrived. With torrential rain & gusts knocking us off our feet, we packed into the car and headed for Blaven; my most promising option in a norwesterly wind.
Brave grins as we set off.
Within minutes the sun came out and ony one tiny hail shower caught us all day.
Wet feet at the first river crossing.
There were still big gusts so I took an unusual option (for me) of following the hopefully sheltered, central gully between the 2 tops. I’ve always considered it a bit of a purgatorial scree treadmill but seemed worthwhile on the safety front.
Warming up as we head up Great Gully
You can make out 3 laid-back towers of rock just right of the scree slope in the photo above. I’d never explored them and was delighted to find the middle one gives a thoroughly entertaining line of good scrambling for us to play on.
Steep scrambling on sun-drenched rock!
Scrambling like this is the business; the normal thigh burning pain of flogging uphill is relieved by a 2-fold combination. Firstly a slower pace is enforced because you need to carefully choose the line & holds. Secondly the concentration on not falling off over-rides most other signals to the brain!
The final wee ridge of scrambling.
Lunch with a view
After a well deserved lunch break in the sun 5 minutes of loose scree warmed us all up well before the icy blast hit us at the top. The view was spectacular & I don’t seem to have been the only one very happy with our efforts!
A bevvy of Buckleys and a Burfday Jill on Blabheinn
The Black Cuillin seemed to have lucked with all the tops clear while not a single mainland peak could be seen.
Sun & snow with the South Top behind us.
The skies got darker as we descended; not just the fact that dusk was approaching but a perfectly timed return for the heavy rain once we were racing to the pub for a celebratory beer. Happy 21st Jill!
