After an even longer hiatus than usual, we decided to go for a Christmas holiday hillwalk up A'Bhuidheanach Beag. After parking at the iced over carpark near Balsporran Cottage, we set off up the hill, initially along the transmission tower access road but very quickly leaving this and heading up on fresh powder-snow covered heather. The wind increased as we ascended and within an hour, we were heading into the cloud base with 40mph winds blowing pellets of hard snow into our faces and visibility was dropping rapidly.
We stopped for food before getting on the plateau on the assumption that it would likely be more windy up top, and decided to attempt to build a quick wind shelter. Unfortunately the snow was quite powdery and so was tricky to build with. Our final construction was unfortunately only useful for one person while lying down, which made eating tricky, although I have some ideas for improving this next time.
Shortly after the food stop, and around the time we hit the plateau, visibility dropped to almost zero, in complete whiteout conditions. We could see our feet because there was some contrast between the boots and the snow, but beyond that the cloud and the clean, featureless snow merged into each other and we could make out perhaps a metre or so infront, but often less. At times we would stop and proceed with extreme caution as a slight change of lighting would make it appear as if the ground was dropping away from us when after cautiously proceeding, it would actually be roughly flat. Other times, I would walk along and then be jolted off-balance as I walked into a slight ascent which was unexpected and not at all visible. And as we walked blindly on our compass bearing, the lack of any reference point mean we found a continual pull to one side (perhaps due to a slight camber) and had to continually turn (in our minds) left to stay on track, giving a feeling of walking in one slow left hand turn.
After a lot of time and with a large number of map stops, counting out steps, walking on compass bearings and frequent GPS position checks, we found ourselves almost at the top, but in the whiteout we couldn't quite see the trigpoint. On the verge of giving up, we inspected the immediate ground and looked for the slightest hint of slope. Once found, we headed up the slope and within a few steps, a dark edge of the trig point became faintly visible, no more than 10 meters away.
The original plan had been to do Carn na Caim too but in a complete whiteout, at the pace we were going, this didn't seem sensible. So with some more compass work to get us towards the edge of the plateau, we started heading back down to the car. On the way, the clouds began thinning and the descent down a large, wide ridge was easy. It was perfect for sledging or skiing, but unfortunately we didn't have any suitable equipment for this and so needed to walk. I need to get a compact sledge for this sort of situation.
Finally back at the car, we investigated the ford at the end of a narrow sloping track which crossed the river right next to where the car was parked. The entrance to the water was easy but the exit less so, so we contented ourselves with driving into the river and then driving out backwards up the track.
