Good OMM training??

After recieving confirmation of entry into this years Elite Class of the OMM. I decided to do a spot of training. As I was down near Loch Awe for work I decided to head up Ben Cruachan and bag that together with Stob Diamh and Beinn a Bhuiridh (2 Ms and a C - bargain). The weather all day was pish but cleared up when I left the car at the station. After my good form at Creag Dhubh on Saturday I felt quick and was soon jogging along the reservoir. It even looked like the clouds were clearing the ridge. All the burns were impressively in spate. I went straight up to the beleach of Ben Cruachan into the mist and once exposed on the slopes a cold wind whipped over the ridge. The mist now became heavier and as I slogged up to the cairn, it became rain. The summit bagged in good time I set off down the ridge, heading east. I was a bit unprepared for the easy scrambling which followed but the rock was grippy in the wet. A couple of slabby bits slowed me down, several steep sided crags dropped of the ridge. The gusty wind drove the rain harder into my rapidly reddening thighs and my hands went numb. After numerous up and downs I reached a summit with a cairn. A bit easy for a Munro I thought, but I was getting chilled so I took a quick (read cr@p) bearing and set of down into the mist, away from the obvious path. After about 5 mins it all looked wrong. The streams flowed in the wrong direction and the slopes were in the wrong place. Bugger. I could see about 50meters and all I could hear were the burns rushing down the hill-side in spate. With a mounting sense of panic, I worked out that I had to head up South and hopefully hit some ridge line with a path on it. It was at this point that I began to think a quick jog around the Cruachan horse-shoe on my own in the rain on sight wasn't a particuarly good idea. I had also lost a bit of confidence in my own ability so it was a very worrying 15min before I topped out on the ridge with its huge path. Never before have I been so glad to see the signs of human caused erosion. The next section of ridge was very straight forward running and I finally reached the top of Stob Diamh. Easy going now as I headed South again. Until I took the wrong ridge, again! This time at least the cloud was blowing through giving intermitant views of the steep-sided green glens and I just had to traverse about 500m to the correct beleach. I had now been on the go for over 3 hours and was seriously cold and did all I could to get out of the wind on the ascent. All I could think about was trying to be mentally tough and get to the bloody top so I could at last drop some height and get a bit warmer. As I staggered feeling decidedly unwell off the last hill I actually paid some attention to the map and when I finally got out of the cloud I was in the right glen! Running down to the steep slope was tricky as the ground was saturated. I hit a mossy patch, tumbled forward and aqua-planned for a couple of meters down a mossy burn face first. All I could do was laugh as I couldn't get any wetter. The final straw was a minor cliff edge right above the access road which involved a bit of detour to scramble down. Aware of the time I legged it down to the car, changed and then tried to find a pub with food. They don't lie in these parts when they say they stop serving at 9.00pm. I went into a deserted pub, full of highlan' charm, and despite being there at 8.45 had to beg for food. Anyway at least they served me unlike the unfortunates who arrived about 10min after me who were told 'there's no food left'. There is obviously a shortage of chips and scampi in Argyll at the moment.

Stats for the run: Time 4h, Distance 13.4km (plus a bit for unplanned detours!), Height about 1500m. No photos, but I will take some next time I am out in the mist again ; o)