For the whole of January, south easterly airflows have dominated the weather in eastern Scotland. Damp, windy, sleety and snowy days, with almost permanent low cloud. All very unusual and quite depressing.
typical daily rainfall radar
Tuesday 27th January
Mo said, “The weather in Skye looks nice for the next couple of days. Let’s go!” We’d planned a trip there in February and I had Dora’s kitchen in pieces, doing some upgrades and repairs. None the less, by 1400, the silicon and varnish had dried and Dora was loaded and ready to go. We nearly didn’t make it though.
To escape the Shire in almost directions, we needed to pass through snow gates. Heading up Strathdon, the road signs said the Lecht gates were closed. Conversely, the webcam showed them to be open. We ploughed on.
We hit the bottom of the steep grade at 50mph and started to scrub speed like an aircraft hooked on an arrester wire, with Dora’s 3200kg bulk overcoming the V8. Drop to 2nd, V8 howling, past the snow gates and up the twisting hairpins, light snow in the air and on the ground. We felt we were past the worst of it.
Further up, deeper snow, with a 50mph wind howling across the road, driving a blizzard and reducing visibility to a few metres. Diff lock engaged, we crept upwards, me forcing my eyes to unfocus from the heater wires in the windscreen and into the whiteout. Snow poles, barely visible, guided us, one at a time. On-coming headlights - another Defender. We barely squeezed past.
over the Lecht
Soon, we dropped from the summit, steeply down, the snow getting wetter as we went. 2WD cars passed us, heading up. We never learned of their fate, but the gates were soon closed. The remaining journey was without excitement and we arrived at the southern end of Skye at 1930.
room with a view. Sleat, Skye
Wednesday 28th January
Sgurr nan Caorach GM/SI-161
A delayed start to the most southerly summit on the island. Officially to sync. with @MW0CBC Denis on his GW activation, but really because we had a lie in. From the car park at the end of the road to An Aird, we walked up the road for a bit and took a tarred track past some houses and onto the hillside. We did see a footpath heading up the side of the stream, but it was heavily wooded, so we stuck with the plan.
really dry ground for January
We crossed a couple of fences and undulations, soon finding ourselves above Loch Fada, before contouring around and up to the summit, which was protected by bands of small crags and a lochan moat.
Bla Bheinn GM/SI-005 from the summit lochan
Surprisingly, the locals were all asleep (or busy), so nothing on 2m FM, but HF yielded the usual results I’ve had recently. Quiet bands, QSB and a few contacts made.
HF from Sgurr nan Caorach
On the way back, Mo led the way, and decided to follow the stream, which also seemed to be the village water supply. Sheep tracks led more directly back down until…
…the stream plunged into a deep gorge. With a deer fence on the left and the gorge on the right and dwarf woodland up the middle, there wasn’t much room for manoeuvre.
deep gorge
Mo declined my offer of an alternative route and we gamely made our way along the edge. We could see Dora in the car park, but we weren’t dropping enough height.
squeeze
We eventually popped out at the road but were 5m above it, atop a cliff. So much for the short cut.
Once extracted, we had lunch in Dora and then drove up to the parking location for Sgurr na h-Iolaire GM/SI-155. My readings on this hill revealed the need to cross a weir/sluice at the outflow of Loch Dhughaill, one that seemed to have a foot of water flowing over it in all the photos I saw.
a dry sluice!
Mo sat this one out. Sheep tracks, across a fence, undulations, a bit more heather, a steep slope, up through the crags and I popped out on the flattish top. I headed to the trig, still capped, so set up HF alongside.
Sgurr na h-Iolaire
VHF first though. Gordon and Colin had been doing outdoors jobs, making the best of the nice weather, which is why I’d missed them this morning.
the Broadford horseshoe
I enjoyed the late afternoon vista and eventually persuaded myself to head back down, managing to find the same gap in the crags but little else of my ascent route. We camped for the night at the quiet loch side.
Thursday 29th January
We were up and organised a good bit earlier. Sgorach Breac GM/SI-151 was the morning objective, then a distillery visit, with Beinn nan Carn GM/SI-150 planned for the afternoon. We’d need to be on our first summit for 1130 to grab a S2S with @GM5ALX over in ES-land.
The road took us steeply down to the west coast of the Sleat peninsula, along some spectacularly rugged coastline, before climbing steeply back towards the east and up the next glen to the north. We found parking at the back of a passing place on a spoil of gravel. Sorry, Land Rovers only.
spoil heap parking
Crossing the road, we climbed up to a deer fence and followed this over the Allt a Ghasgain, Mo taking it Free Solo style.
adventure at every turn
When the deer fence turned left, we left it behind and headed over the humps and bumps that seemed to feature on the hills of Sleat. The summit, a loch and the summit trig came into view. Another supposed fortress of rock, but one which revealed many weaknesses as we closed in.
Beinn nan Carn GM/SI-150
summit selfie
Finally, a trig with a hole. Also a stiff breeze. VHF first for the locals. The EFHW looked to be the correct length to reach a sheltered hollow below the summit, so that was deployed for the first time this trip. I got my summit to summit with Alex, and also a complete for Hill of Wirren.
me, radio, trig, mast etc
views to the mainland
On our return to the Land Rover, it was just a short drive down to the new (2017) distillery at Torabhaig. Lunch and a necessary purchase of their 6 year old Sound of Sleat Malt. A nice place. Worth a visit.
a young Malt on an old Land Rover
from the distillery- Knock castle and the mainland
It felt like Spring in the afternoon sunshine. We packed our booty in Dora and headed north towards Broadford. We were done with Sleat. A single track road led south from Broadford towards the hamlet of Heasta. I’d planned on parking there for the ascent of Beinn nan Carn GM/SI-150, but there was a bit of farming activity going on, so instead, we turned around and headed back up the hill for a bit to park in a quarry.
Dora hiding in the quarry
A longer but less steep route was now the challenge. More heather than I would have liked and a lot of stream crossings - I counted 15 on the way back. I was zeroed in on the cairn, which sat on the edge of an escarpment. When I eventually reached it, I saw another to my left, 200m away. The true summit, according to the map.
Beinn nan Carn GM/SI-150
I was an hour earlier than planned, so once 2m, 40m and 20m chasers were satisfied, I had a go on 15m, just using the 41’ random. I added @EC8ADS Alfredo and @W4GO Matt. Then I turned the radio off. Three continents would do.
KX-2 with a view
afternoon sunshine
On the way back, I was slightly more uphill and almost fell into the hidden gully that was stream #15. When I did work my way down, I was rewarded with a fossil bed.
fossils
Back at the car for tea and cake and a committee meeting. We’d planned on another Skye camp, but Friday’s weather back east was looking rough and we didn’t want to gamble with snow gates again. With sadness, we left Skye at 1600. A stop in Inverness for dinner and supplies, and we eventually hit the slopes of the Lecht at 2030, just as it was begining to snow.
The snow gates were closed on Friday morning and remained so for much of the day.
Cock Bridge snowgate webcam
There’s no sign of an end to this filthy weather, so we’re already planning our next escape from the Shire.
