Strawberry Cottage in Glen Affric was the destination for the last weekend meet of 2012. There was some snowfall and the weather was fine if cold, and the views were stunning. But not everything went quite to plan...
Strawberry Cottage is a great hut, spacious and well-furnished, and the fire was going not long after arrival.
On Saturday morning two groups were formed, one heading out with ambitions to bag A'Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-Choire, of which more later.
The other set off south along the road to avoid a deer-stalking area. Snow was falling, and further along the track was closed for repairs.
After climbing through the glen into the afternoon it became obvious that it was going to be too late to attempt a Munro - another hour or more away - and still get back in time to organise food before it got dark.
The sun was already going down around 3pm, and darkness was falling by the time the group were back at the hut.
The fire was lit, and Paul made lentil soup, and there was a main course to follow. But - disconcertingly - where were the other group?
Alison takes up the story.
'The Lost Party'
So after a late Friday night, we woke up relatively late on Saturday morning to find a fresh layer of snow. A group of 5 of us set off at around 10am with the intention of walking A'Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-Choire. After the 6 or so kilometers walk through the glen we eventually started the tough ascent in deepening snow to the first summit.
Having reached A'Chralaig rather late in the afternoon and with snow forecast to start in a few hours we decided to push on to try and get the walk finished in time for the bolognese waiting for us back at the cottage to have not gotten cold!
Soon the sun went down and the head torches came out! Then, as forecasted, the snow started and the walk began to get more serious, head down and just keep walking. However, the ridge towards Mullach Fraoch-Choire started getting very rocky with cliffs -- you didnt want to look down! After negotiating a couple of these tricky and probably rather dangerous parts we decided it would be stupid to go on, and so decided to turn back intending on dropping back down into the glen we'd walked up and heading back to the cottage.
BUT! Somewhere on our retreat we lost the footsteps we had made on the way up, possibly because the snow and wind had blown them away. Unknown to us we had overshot and ended up out on a ledge that - despite looking at the map - we didn't know existed. So when we dropped down to the left none of us questioned it because left meant we were going the correct way! We were even more convinced we were right when we hit the river, thinking "Great! We just have to follow the river and we'll be back in no time!"
All was well until the little river we were following joined the main river: this river was braiding and was a lot wider. It was at this point we decided to get the compass out... We were following a river running south, the opposite direction to the cottage. After consulting the map we realised we were in An Caorainn Mor, the glen parallel to the one we thought we were in! Still baffled as to how we had managed to get there we noticed Cluanie Inn on a road running at the end of the Glen and decided to head there! Eventually, after trudging through bog and river for what felt like hours we reached the road. We then began frantically phoning to tell everyone that we were all safe, just in the wrong place and to try and get the message to the 7 who were back at the cottage with no phone signal and lots of bolognese!
We finally reached the Inn and searched for an entrance, but all the lights were off and it looked empty! However, we eventually found a door that led to a corridor with a light on! So we desperately knocked until a man (the owner) came down the stairs. We told him our situation and he kindly let us sit in the reception and gave us each a cup of tea until we decided what we should do! There was talk of a taxi driving us back to the cottage, but costing £100 and with no taxi companies willing to do the 60 mile drive we decided that after the owner kindly offered to let us stay in the Inn at a very reasonable cost we would stay there for the night, and get rescued by the others in the minibus the next day.
So we all got snuggled into our nice warm beds with duvets and radiators. Then at about 1 o'clock in the morning our phones began to ring! It was the others who had come out looking for us -- and a phone signal. Much to their relief we told them we were safe, and they started their hour back to the cottage.
The next day we woke up and the sun was out and it looked like a brilliant day for walking!
Unfortunately for us we had to wait to get picked up by the minibus, and unfortunately for the guys on the minibus they had to come pick us up, so none of us got to go out walking. But overall it was an interesting experience!
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