DUNLOP HILL (978')

Log book entry from 70th R & I Expedition Log - Everest Challenge, supplemented by Glip's personal log of the event

Saturday 13th January        Dunlop Hill (987')

Leaders Glip and Gordon Robertson

Scouts Andrew Davies, Kevin Byng, Sandy Thomson and Andrew Irvine

Report

The attendance at this sledging expedition was below expectations. Several of those who might have come were unable to since their parents did not think the road to Cornalees would be passible. Each Scout had to make their own way as I could not get a minibus.

Fortunately, some parents made the effort including Mrs. Byng who had that expression on her face which seemed to suggest that she was uncertain about our sanity. Gordon Robertson had his crash helmet with him just in case his sledge went out of control and this proved a great source of amusement.

The compensation reservoir was iced up and there was plenty of snow, so it looked quite promising. We had a hard job preventing Kevin from going ice skating.

Although there was plenty of snow, it was quite soft and we had to prepare runs by compressing the snow with our sledges.  The gully (Grid reference 244725) which had proved so good when Stuart, Andrew and I were up previously, was hopeless in these conditions. Our best slope was from the top of the 972’ top into the gully. At first, we kept slowing to a stop just before the gully, but, as the snow compressed, we got closer and closer to the brink and finally, to great cheers, the first sledge tottered on the brink, then hurtled down into the gully, spewing forth its passengers at the bottom into a snow drift, with an accompanying explosion of snow which totally obliterated sledge and sledger from view.

It was about 3 o’clock when Kevin and Andrew asked whether they could count this hill towards Everest; the announcement about Everest having made the previous night).  I was very dubious as to whether the Challenge would be suitable for Scouts in primary seven, but it struck me that we could probably aim for lesser targets such as Ben Nevis etc.  Thus, the idea of four ‘stages’ was born. I agreed to grant the height if they reached the trig point further on. They agreed and so I took them, with sledges, to the top of Dunlop Hill or Laverockhouse Hill (978’) and took a photograph into the red evening sky. A great moment indeed, since it heralded the start of the Everest Challenge, even though the climb was unofficial.

The other three, meanwhile, have been trying on the western slopes of the 910 top. When we rejoined them, it was getting gloomy so we descended down the very steep slope to the right of the fence (looking down) and made our way back to the car park to meet parents.

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