In reply to Mike Conlon:
Hi Lucy, I am so grateful, and I will email you further, including an account of our trip in to try and tick off Squareface and Mitre Ridge. In case anyone else is curious about the circumstances, here is a "brief" account.
Seven of us cycled in from Keiloch on the Saturday morning. We weren't all experienced cyclists, so some found it tough going in the heat of a sunny day. There was a puncture from the granite gullies on the track beyond Slugain, but some very generous local mountain bikers came to the rescue. They donated an inner tube, repair patches, brand new pump etc, which fortunately we were able to return on the Sunday.
One of our party exhibited symptoms of sunstroke and we were relieved to get to the Sneck and pitch camp for her to recover. The ground is quite gravelly and wouldn't hold pegs, so we collected stones to hold the pegs down. With two of the party off to do Schlod Wall, all the rest of us abseiled in to Squareface. We enjoyed a superb climb in glorious evening light.
We knew a storm was expected on the Sunday night, so our strategy was to wait out some forecast rain in the morning, before trying Mitre Ridge and heading out. No sooner had we settled for the night, when un-forecast blustery winds arrived. As we listened to pegs pulling out, it grew to gale force and we prepared for the inevitable. Two of us were sharing a venerable expedition tent which got obliterated. There was a hilarious twenty minutes of us trying to dress under flatened canvas, while our companions looked on in amusement and concern in that order. At some point it became apparent that my sleeping bag was no more and with the gale swirling around it could have been anywhere. Two of the girls made room in each of their one person tents, and I spent the rest of the wild night shivering in my waterproofs whilst trying to maintain personal space with the fabric pressing on our faces.
Next morning, we emerged to a site of desolation. It was still wild and now raining, so short of tents to sit it out, we reluctantly agreed to bail out. My third failed attempt to combine Squareface and Cummin Crofton.
A minor epic, but such experiences enliven our sport and cause renewed respect for the mighty Cairngorms. It will be long and fondly remembered. Purely speculatively, I posted a couple of "lost sleeping bag" messages on UKC and a Monroes site. Never did I expect to hear anything. And then popped up the lovely Lucy, epitomising all that is good about the climbing and mountaineering community.
