A walk to Geal Charn - despite the dire weather warnings from Rufus the dog

Sunday 2nd February 2025

Despite the weather warnings (50 mph winds and fog) from Rufus, a golden retriever puppy, who decided to take his owner, Iain, for a gentler walk in sunnier conditions, eight of us, plus Dan the dog, who hadn’t been allowed to see a weather forecast(!), set off for Geal Charn from Inverey.

We were blessed with blue sky and sunshine as we walked up the track on the north side of Allt Crstie Beag, including stunning views of a pair of golden eagles flying overhead.  Shortly afterwards we got into snow and some lovely conditions.  

On reaching the ridge Jane and Sandra opted for a shorter walk back down the ridge just to the south of our ascent. The rest of us, Bob, Kenny, Alison, Gail, Steve and Ruth continued along the ridge, in lowering cloud (what was that about fog Rufus?), but the wind conditions weren’t too bad at that stage. We got within a few meters of Geal Charn and paused to try to find the top in limited visibility, while Steve and Alison chased gloves blown away and never to be seen again.  We did find the top of Geal Charn, but the wind was significantly stronger than just 20m away and we could barely stand up (what was that about wind Rufus?). Our original plan was to have headed east from Geal Charn but that was probably dangerous in the southerly storm. Furthermore, the route to Damhaireach, before dropping down onto the landrover track was full of peat hags, which would have been hard to navigate filled with snow and in the limited visibility. So, we retreated to the calmer conditions of our ascent route.  We found a slightly sheltered hollow in which to have lunch and Dan sheltered from the spin drift dreaming of Rufus in sunnier conditions.  We continued to retrace our steps until we picked up Jane and Sandra’s route of descent, which was a lovely snow-covered slope making the descent very easy.  Overall, a great winters day out, although Dan the dog requests to see the weather forecast before he comes next time!   

By Ruth