GOATFELL (2886')

Log book entry from Glip's personal log

Saturday 26th May        Goatfell (2866')

Leader Glip, John Tait, Robbie Mochrie

PL  Roderick McCrorie

​

APLs Kenny (Frodo) Blair, James (Peasant) Gatherer

Scouts Colin Beaton, Douglas ‘Jobby’ McCrorie, Alistair ‘Frodlet’ Blair, Stuart (Merry) Dalrymple

Weather

Cool, fresh wind (N-NE). Sunny most of the day, but clouds building up during the day to give snow showers on the peaks and heavy sustained rain showers during the evening. Very cold at night for the time of year.

​

Report

We were due to leave at 7:30 AM so that we could catch the 9 AM ferry from Ardrossan. As it turned out, I got the ferry times completely wrong (and I complained about Chris!).  The ferry wasn’t due to depart until 9:45 AM, which was just as well Merry slept in and failed to appear on the main road

near Mcllroy’s point as planned. This posed a big problem since he had moved to his new address the previous day and nobody knew where he was. Fortunately, directory enquiries knew where they were and we were able to appear on his doorstep. Merry’s father was apologetic and invited me into the house which had a superb view needless to say.

There was another false start when Merry forgot his boots, but this gave me the chance to reverse the minibus up the lane which was fun.

We left with just over an hour left and sped down to Adrossan with fortunately few delays.

A shock awaited us, however, when we discovered there was no chance of getting the van across. With a slight panic, we unloaded, sent the scouts to the boat and tried to find a parking spot with less than 15 minutes left before sailing time. We succeeded and flopped gear onto several rows of seats on the boat where we were able to get organized. The crossing took an hour as expected.

The long trek from Balloch to Glen Rosa ( ca 3 miles) was not appreciated and by the time we set up camp on a nice sweet spot away from the main community of tents, very few Scouts were that interested in climbing that day.

Rather than argue the point, I ordered lunch and a sunbathe.

By 1 PM, it was time to move and I eventually meet the climb compulsory to solve any problems of people like Merry going off on their own and doing silly things on rocks.

We climbed from our campsite (GR 993381) across the river and scrambled directly up the slopes north of us to Glen shant Hill (1311’).

Naturally, Mary went up the rocks along with Peasant and Colin, so I left the main party to keep tabs on them. We met up again at the foot of Goatfell’s south shoulder. Here, bivvies were  constructed with great zeal. Merry was especially enthusiastic and yattered on about bivvies for the rest of the day, eventually driving Frodo and Colin to despair.

The shorter consisted of large boulders and treacherous heather in between the boulders so that it was preferable to boulder leap……..

The last part of the shoulder turned into a good ridge with strange rock formations – large tablets stacked on top of each other.

We had a snack at the summit and donated food to Merry who are suffering from lack of food. Once photos were taken and Kilimanjaro scarves had been given to Merry, Frodo and Colin, we followed the North Ridge to the summit at 2659 feet as the first flurries of snow (would you believe) began to fall. The ridge and the descent north-west to the saddle were the most enjoyable parts of the climb and even Roderick appreciated it (the next day mind you).  Coming down had its potentially dangerous bits, especially with Scouts not looking where they were going – for example, descending rock slabs totally unaware of the sheer cliff a couple of paces to their right.

Once down to the saddle, the long walk back to camp began, but at least there was a path. By now, Merry was restored to full energy and bounded away, exploring all possible swimming pools en route. With about a mile to go, the rains fell and conditions became grim. Peasant, in particular, despite leading most of the way, did not seem to be enjoying himself particularly and I forced into wearing a hat.  Frodo decided not to put on waterproofs, preferring to get wet for some reason.

With the rain falling down and winter temperatures, John, Robbie and I fussed over the three tent groups making sure they kept the insides of their tents dry and that they cooked their meals. The youngest group of Colin, Ally and Douglas arrived home to a wet tent since it had not been shut properly, but once it was dried out, they coped well with leaders directions and appeared to eat well.  Roderick and Merry appeared to need no help whatsoever, But Frodo and Peasant proved surprisingly to be our most worrying tent group. It wasn’t until I was sure that the likes of Colin and co when properly arranged in their tent with respect to equipment and were cooking their meal that I visited Frodo and Peasant to find him shivering away in their tent with the stove out – definite possibilities for exposure.

Once they had completely changed into dry clothes, however, they soon recovered especially after their meal. Fortunately, there were dry spells which allowed organization of equipment and food etc

There was a fiery sunset over the snowcapped mountains that night. Somebody quipped that Merry was playing with his meths again and I took him seriously (Silly Boy!). We retreated to pit with the rain hammering on the tent.

​

​​