Expecting the cloud cover to rise,
As MWIS* had predicted,
We set off hopefully
Up the Kinlochewe track to the first bifurcation.
We struck our way up from the Shenavall path
Over broken stone and increasingly vertical slope
Picking up an unwelcome gusting wind.
The cloud rose grudgingly
But never completely cleared.
Squalling mist revealed,
In a chance glimpse,
The mighty buttressed peaks and near vertical plunging stone shafts
Of Lord Berkely’s seat and Sgurr Fiona,
With the hairline path picking its way across scree and buttress
(And that was the easy path).
Our steps slowed,
The desultory conversation ebbed
Until with unspoken accord we stopped
On the safest looking path side
And considered our way ahead.
We have looked at and aspired to these peaks
For over 40 years
Yet,
To go on seemed madness.
An Tealloch will go on the short list of mountains
From which we have retreated,
But have lived.
The might of the mountain all-engulfing,
We retraced our steps
Carefully.
June 2018
* mountain weather information service
Jo Hansen 