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Ann’s story: Fort William Winter Adventures
Hear about Ann's first walking trip in her own words:
I have just returned from an amazing week on the Fort William Winter Walking trip. As a new member to CSSC, everyone was so friendly, and all made me feel very welcome and looked after.
"I discovered a whole new playground in the winter mountains"
Not having been to mountains for walking in winter before several of us had a day’s instruction/refresher on winter skills – how to use an ice axe and crampons – and we were lucky enough to have loads of fresh snow, ice and some pretty high winds to contend with on our Munro climb. I discovered a whole new playground in the winter mountains. I took part in both low and high level walks/climbs during the week and we were always accompanied by a qualified instructor or mountain leader.
The week gave me some incredible experiences. One challenging day for me was a step walk up, part of which was along a rocky, snow and ice covered steep sided ridge line with intermittent high winds and blizzards. We were rewarded by the most amazing views and sense of achievement from conquering the slight moments of fear and jelly legs and making the top of my 3rd Munro.
"Chris had moved to old school navigation and I thought it was just magic that he had any idea where we were"
Our final day was a day trip on the train out to Corrour, which is a little station on the West Highland Railway in the middle of nowhere and not accessible by public roads. We arrived in very snowy conditions, as the station is at 400m, ready for a nice early start at 8.30am. With one group taking the option of flatish walk around the beautiful Loch Ossian. Clair and I opted for the hill walk and we set off in knee high snow with chatty Chris our leader for a climb up a nearby Corbett. Little did we know that this was going to be quite a mini adventure. At some point on the climb I realised that Chris had stopped chatting as Clair and I had just been following on wading through the increasingly deep snow. The weather had, bit by bit, turned in to a complete white out so goggles and thick gloves went on. Chris had moved to old school navigation and I thought it was just magic that he had any idea where we were and how on earth he managed to find the peak cairn.
"We were rewarded by the most amazing views and sense of achievement from conquering the slight moments of fear and jelly legs"
After a quick lunch in the essential orange emergency shelter, brilliant to escape from the high wind and snow and more importantly to refuel, we set off back down as the weather just threw more wind and snow at us. After multiple moments digging each other’s bodies and legs out of snow drifts and bogs we made it back; Chris very pleased that it was pretty much on the dot of 3pm as he had estimated. An epic day that totally taught me how easily it would be for a novice to get very lost and potentially perish, despite being relatively close to safety. I had a lesson in the bar later that afternoon on how Chris worked this magic using compass, pacing, altitude and slope and through it all. This explained the stopping chatting, as concentration was needed, and I always felt that we were safe with him and that he had it covered.
Thanks to all of the week's mountain leaders and instructors for making it such a great experience and for the great company of the fellow CSSC walkers.
Take a look
We have a hill walking album on our Facebook page, where all of the pictures have been taken by our members! Why not take a look and see if hill walking could be for you?
