Retrospective is funny old thing.  When deciding on where to go, obviously thinking that our first day out winter climbing would be spent in Beinn A’Bhuird is retrospectively not the best choice.  It is one of the most remote places in the UK, under alot of soft fresh snow.  Still we never really thought about that, I was just keen on going some where new.

After cycling  and walking we finally go to the bottom of the route we came to climb ‘ Slab and Arete’ after 4 hours!  It was probably the longest walk in I have ever done.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a stunning day and the place was beautiful – just quite hard going for the first winter outing with heavy bags full of ‘stuff’.  We decided that eating lunch at the bottom was a good idea, this is were I found out I had left my lunch on the front seat of the van.  A few choice swear words and a grumbly stomach and we set off up the climb.

It was rather more than the guide book suggested and with a few alterations and swearing we got up it, not the conventional route but was plenty interesting and gave a really enjoyable climb.

We got to the Top around 4:15pm just as the sun was setting. What ensued is a long walk back to the bikes in the darkness across the top of Beinn A’Bhuird with amazing views of the sun setting all around us, we could see for miles. It was a pretty clear night so we managed most of it with out head torches, when we got back to the bikes we had a brilliant decent back down the snowy icy path slip sliding our way down.  Amazingly all of us staying upright.

A great day out albeit a long one, nothing like breaking us in gently!  Scottish hills were a great place to be that day!  All the rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking here