172. Meall Glas (199) 28/02/2015

The conditions weren't exactly forecast to be good, but they ended up being worse with continuous precipitation and strong winds higher up.

Walking up the glen, we had intended to come around the hill and climb from the SW, but we saw a good line from the track and decided to save a bit of time by ascending directly. Once a bridge was found, a couple of deer fences were scaled, a smaller river was forded and many large mysterious man-made holes were avoided, the going became easier. Until the final climb to the ridge, the higher slopes were quite gentle and the only difficulty was the cold sleet, which was permeating most of our clothes. Fortunately this turned to (the far preferable) snow at about 700m, but that was plenty of time for it to make us quite cold.

The final approach to the ridge was interesting in that we had to ascend a steep snow slope, not knowing much about the top. We trod carefully and kept our axes at the ready, being wary of potential overhangs, but in the end the section we had chosen wasn't steep enough for that. We found the ridge and battled our way into the biting wind for half a mile to the top. No photos were taken here - it would not have been good for our health. Some consideration was given to continuing to the neighbouring munro, but in the end discretion prevailed and we retraced our footprints all the way back to the track. 

We had a further go at the other munro the following day, but were turned back by even stronger winds and blizzard less than a mile from the top.

 When hiking it is important to maintain the latest fashion in socks.

Things became rather white... 

Yes, that's quite a lot of snow in the rucksack