Day 42 - 4 Seasons in 15 minutes!

Hi all, just catching up on a missing day with Don Reid acting as pacer and councillor at the same time, with the distinct turn to colder weather and heavy showers my head took it bad, real bad. The heavy showers were easy to spot rolling in but this didn't help they hit hard & cold. We set not a bad pace over rough ground and topped out Ben Tee in quick time before a steep slippy drop off the back and traversed over very course ground to reach Meall na h-Eilde and a tough climb to lose the soft ground behind. Once on the ridge Don looked back to ask me something, but instead looked past and exclaimed "OH FLIP!!!" (or to that effect) I turned to follow his gaze and saw a jet black wall approaching us at high speed. Within minutes we were enveloped in thick clag and hail started to fall in huge sweeps. The temperature plummeted and the hail changed to thick heavy snow, sticking to everything. After what seemed eternity to frozen toes, it cleared and as the next patch of blue sky whizzed over the temperature soared again and the inch of lying snow vanished as quickly as it had fallen! After a thankfully brief nip up Geal Charn we had a steady track descent back to the van on Loch Arkaig-side for a big feed and drinks supplied by Brenny & Dot as more heavy showers swept over. I opted to changed the planned route a bit here by taking a longer road bike to Glen Loy for a shorter and well trodden climb up Beinn Bhan then a seemingly never ending 6 mile hike to Meall a Phubuill in howling winds and freezing cold! A quick map check revealed we almost missed the proper top and instead had to plod down and up yet another wee lump to finally bag it! We sploshed our way down for a quick look in Glensulaig bothy before I mtb’d back the van and Don trotted in totally knackered – great effort Don, we moved a lot better in the afternoon, thanks for keeping me going there. My Mum & Dad had arrived having ferried the boys to us from Newtonmore full of sweeties, fish & chips and fizzy pop!