UKC

Thinking of doing the Tarmachan rdige this weekend. Was up the munro before having ascended north of the loch but the winds at that time, coupled with ice, put me off the full ridge (had my dog with me too).

Is there any snow up that way (not been out in the hills since November)and, if so, does it reach the road to the parking?

I've seen the UKH route card.

In reply to Flinticus:
Based on what I can see here http://www.benmorewebcam.co.uk/ : yes, there will be snow on the tops but the road should be fine.


Personally, I prefer going clockwise.

In reply to Flinticus:

had one of my biggest epics there, nothing to do with the ridge, tried to get my old automatic Honda estate up that road when it was sheet ice and got through the tree section only to get to a point where I could no longer move upwards.
put the brakes on and the car started sliding backwards with all four wheels locked but gathering speed. ended up with car sideways across the road fully blocking it and bursting both bumpers.
jumped out and fell on my arse on the sheet ice and managed to push the front of the car round at which point it set of on its own downhill with me running and sliding beside it panicking like feck in case a car came up towards me.
eventually managed to get the door open and jump into the moving car and force it up onto a snow bank.
if im ever back in winter I will be walking up from the main road.

In reply to buzby:

Lol! Had a similar experience sliding backwards down onto the main road a few yeaers ago.
PS Good to see people using http://www.benmorewebcam.co.uk/

In reply to buzby:

that made me laugh
cheers.

In reply to Flinticus:

There's only 1 section which is a wee bit taxing with ice and snow on the downclimb from the ridge, but it can be bypassed on the right to avoid the difficulty.
Because of the aspect of the slopes and the winds up that way, the snow does tend to be pretty stable and solid.
I've been along it in every weather imaginable, and neither myself or my beagles have ever had any problems.

In reply to buzby:




Mine was not as dynamic, we just beached the middle of the car ( Golf) and the wheels no longer reached the road with enough weight to get a grip, we saw tracks and thought we would be ok, but we found out soon that the tracks were of a large 4x4 who turned up facing us as we blocked the road, he had got past that point but could not get much further and turned round only to be blocked by us and the other cars that were now at our back, they were mobile , but with nowhere to turn.

In the end, everyone had to help us dig the snow out from undefr our car ( with snow shovels and ice axes,) until the wheels gripped, and everyonone reversed back down the road very slowly.

So if the road is bad, best to do as you say, walk from the main road, or go elsewhere, as we lost so much time, we did not get a walk on a hill that day.
If you have a very high 4x4 and winter tyres, it might be worth a look.

! Great car stories. I don't want none of that shit. I know that road fairly well. My car is fairly new and not yet used to it and its a bit bigger than my last, Clio. Will keep an eye on that cam.

In reply to Flinticus:

Most of the trees have been felled on the way up the lairig road.

I was on Creag Uchdag today and could see plenty of snow on the Tarmachan ridge with good cover down to around 700m. It'll be icy and scoured now with bomber neve on all aspects where the depth is there but that'll change by the weekend.

In reply to Flinticus:

I was up there on the 1st, properly horrible weather but the lower slopes were completely clear. The road was also totally clear.
It had been a few years since my last visit, totally sideswiped by the change of surroundings! The lower forest is gone, the visitor centre is gone and the carpark is now on the left!
Love the ridge though, had a fair few outings on it about 10 years ago.

In reply to T_Mac:

Yeah, I have been up a couple of times since the forestry has been decimated, and it's a proper mess isn't it? Shame, it's kind of spoiled the approaching anticipation as you drive up the road, but hey ho.

I echo the sentiments about the ridge. Should pose little problems this weekend, (mind, I'm never sure with dogs, but each to their own).

Having a dilemma now.

Reconsidering the whole day as (see other thread in The Pub http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=574778) I wonder if I should give my dog a chance at an easy walk and see if he can manage that before I start going for walks without him. There's what would be considered an easy hill opposite where he did his most recnet hill walk towards the end of November.

I've had him 7 years and have only ever walked without him if he's been sick / injured (aside from a few days many years ago when I stayed in the Glen Affric YH).

Went in the end. Got up the munro but didn't do the ridge. Wind was terrific. Much stronger than forecast and bad wind chill. But it was the cloud to the west that seemed ti be racing toward me that struck the fatal blow to my plan. Didn't want to risk white out in such conditions.

Naturally the weather front bypassed the ridge and I'm left wondering. ..

In reply to Flinticus:

How was the road? Me and my mate enjoyed a crampontastic blast on Stob Binnein and Ben More from Inverlochlarig......apart from the road up Balquhidder glen, it was like an ice rink!!

In reply to Joak:

Well, I parked at the bottom of the single track road after seeing the thin covering of snow and speaking to a driver who had retreated. still a lot of cars made it up but that was risky if the weather closed in. It was sleeting as I was at Killin. Speaking to some who drove up, there was skidding and getting out and pushing going on.

What was the wind like where you were? Most walkers turned back before the summit.

In reply to Flinticus:

Winds were strong, especially as we approached the Bealach eadar dha Bheinn wind tunnel!! Fair bit of spindrift being whipped up from western slopes and deposited on already loaded eastern aspects. Snow conditions underfoot could not have been better, nice icy neve the whole day above 800m. Even the usually boggy ground on the SW'ly traverse towards the watershed at the head of Inverlochlarig Glen was on firm neve down to about the 650m contour.

In reply to Joak:

Yeah, the snow covering was great. Hands nearly froze changing from microspikes to crampons. Spindrift getting into bag and so on. Had to don my under armour balaclava to stop the snow sticking to my neck!

In reply to Flinticus:

Anyone been up there recently?
Looking at the BenMore webcam there should still be a bit of snow up there, albeit the roads shoudl be clear - can anyone confer?
Forecasdt for the weekend not too bad...

In reply to Pids:


Was up Tarmachan last Sunday afternoon (19 Jan). Plenty of snow at that stage - substantial strips from about 700m and complete cover from around 900m. There's been a couple of mild days since then but today is much colder and there's been snow to lower levels (500m-ish) on the hills in the Stirling area since last night.

The road was fine last Sunday but of course varies from day to day - as you'll know, the main problem tends not to be snow-blockage but the surface becoming lethal with ice given how easily the run-off water seems to freeze there.

(On the hill I had a near-epic in couldn't-see-the-ground whiteout conditions - spent an hour wandering around trying and failing to find a visibly safe way down, and in the end went back up and downclimbed one of those little summit gullies as at least I knew where it went. Only just managed to make it down in daylight and in one piece. A bit more adventurous than I'd intended when setting off, but such are the joys of winter.)

In reply to Pids:



Don't which forecast you've been looking at, but I would definitely try to go on Saturday - Sunday looks horrible according to MWIS!

In reply to Mark Bull:


Yes, I almost said that too - not sure either day looks brilliant, really.

In reply to Dave Hewitt:
I had a similar day on Tarmachan last winter, full whiteout conditions. The summit of Tarmachan was by memory, the top of Meall Garbh was by compass. I was very relieved to reach this top and decided to bail out down it's south ridge. Even this had its moments when I took my eye of the ball (red compass needle to be exact) as I stumbled into invisible drifts I found myself going of at right angles to my chosen line of travel and had to be constantly corrected. As you say..."the joys of winter"

In reply to Joak:

My escapade last weekend felt alarming partly because I thought I knew my way round the summit area quite well (it was my 16th visit including several in winter), but I still managed to make a mess of that initial dogleg on descent and this led to the hour of scary faffing in the hummocky area beyond. Twice contrived to fall down snowbanks that I hadn't seen until I'd stepped over them - neither was very long or steep, but it was quite scary.

Incidentally, that Meall Garbh south ridge (where I was initially aiming last weekend before thinking better of it and retreating) can indeed be confusing. It meets the main ridge just to the east of Meall Garbh itself - rather than at the summit itself, as a glance at the map can tend to suggest - and the easiest way up then sort of spirals round before the pointy bit at the top.