 | After climbing Bla Bheinn, and deciding to start Munroing seriously, it was somewhat discouraging to find that I had only climbed 16 Munros in my life, including Bla Bheinn - and this included two (Ben Lui and Ben Wyvis) which I later decided I had never climbed. Psychologically, therefore, it was with a sense of making up for lost time that I tackled the White Mounth on my first day of earnest Munro-bagging, in that here the Munros are scattered thickly with only minimal dips between. I planned to climb 4, 5 or even 6 in one day.
The weather was somewhat mediocre, and all tops had a bit of mist on them, but I enjoyed trudging about on these vast moorlands, snapping up Munros like I had never done before in my life! It was on leaving the summit of Tolmount that the danger of doing this in these conditions with no compass suddenly came home to me. In fact I had almost set off in completely the wrong direction, and would soon have been hopelessly lost.
Having been more careful on Tom Buidhe, I then made the decision to finish the day with a brief diversion to the top of Glas Maol and back, despite the fact that it was in thick mist. The top was totally featureless, and having followed a party armed with maps and compasses who were obviously doing part of a hillcraft course, I left them there to return to the col. Soon, however I had lost all sense of direction and had no idea which side of the hill I was on. I wandered aimlessly, in increasing panic, for about 5 minutes, then, with great relief I heard voices not far off in the mist. It was the hillcraft party, still diligently pacing out their descent and keeping their eyes on their compasses. In great embarrassment I asked them where I was, discovered I was on exactly the opposite side of the hill from where I meant to be, declined their offer to accompany them to the top of Creag Leacach and retreated down the nearest slope to the safety of a glen which took me out to the main road - but with a demoralisingly long walk back over the Cairnwell Pass to where I'd parked the car.
Thus I learned my first, and now seemingly elementary lesson - always take a compass! Nevertheless in one fell swoop I had vastly increased my score of Munros and, after buying myself a compass, I was ready for the next foray. |
