70mph

Ken and Barry were joined by Peter, myself and Ian today. The forecast wasn't good - winds of 50mph possibly gusting to 70mph on high tops and ridges, snow, sleet or rain showers etc - a normal Scottish day.

So with this in mind we planned a lower level winter day up Buachaille Etive Beag, to the col and across the ridge to Stob Dubh. The first photo shows Barry, Peter and Ken with Stob Dubh in the background with the ridge leading up to it.

The wind was initially gusting 50mph, but when we got half way along the ridge it picked up to 70mph and so we had to learn about making mountaineering decisions. We learnt that sometimes you need to turn back to stay safe, rather than risking it all and getting into an epic. Excellent effort from the whole team - well done in difficult conditions.

Hopefully the wind will ease tomorrow...

Stay safe everybody in these difficult conditions, sometimes it's best to turn around, and it'll always be there another day...

There has been some slab building up on the hard icy crust on some aspects - so take care as it builds up.