The Meall nan Tarmachan ridge is a fine venue for a winter’s day hill walk. Twice now this season, I’ve been up there with groups, navigating on its intricate and complex terrain and practicing steep group movement skills, with ice axe and crampons.
Being based in Glasgow, finding a good winter venue not too far from home can be tricky, particularly in recent years when snow conditions have been lean. Meall nan Tarmachan, however, meaning Rounded hill of the Ptarmigan, has a number of benefits. It has a high car park, at 450m. As long as it’s clear of snow, you can start high and save a good amount of time getting to snowy slopes. The hill also has lots of interesting ridges and corries with different slope aspects, meaning you can find slopes that are less prone to avalanche risk.
This winter, the prevailing westerly winds have deposited snow on eastern aspects. From Killin and Loch Tay, as you approach by car, the hill looks disappointingly free of snow. But high up, as you explore its ridges and corries, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by large snowfields and gullies full of snow.
Throughout much of February, the snowpack has been well consolidated. This means it forms a compact, homogenous layer of well-bonded snow. When frozen, the snow becomes hard, and crampons become essential for safe travel. Tripping up on hard snow like this can lead to alarming slides and what’s termed long run-outs, meaning you slide for a long way and quickly, presenting the risk of bashing into rocks and hurting yourself. Well-consolidated hard snow, also, however, also affords the winter hill-walker delightfully enjoyable ground for walking. Rather than painstakingly post-holing through deep snow, one can walk easily and efficiently through the landscape. Conditions like these also present excellent conditions for ascending snow slopes, including easy snow gullies. Meall Garbh on Meall nan Tarmachan has a few short and straightforward grade 1 winter gullies (Easy gully, for example – see below) that make for an enjoyable and exciting adventure. With clients this February, we found easy angled slopes to develop skills, longer snow slopes for practicing journeying skills, before progressing onto our grade 1 easy gully.
All the while, on our winter journey, we were accompanied by Alan’s dog Mishka, a Samoyed. This breed of dog comes from Siberia and has a dense, warm coat and hair on the base of its feet to afford it lots of grip. It went without saying that Mishka breezed along the ridge with ease. If you’d like to join us for a winter’s day hill walk, or for some winter skills training, please get in touch.
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