Beinn Bheoil

I was last up here in June 1990. Then it was a glorious sunny day. Today it was sunny, but not glorious.

With the best of intentions, we had planned this walk to try out some new gear in advance of a mountain 'race' we are doing later in the month. Unfortunately you can't plan the weather. Gale force westerly winds and showers of sleet howled across the mountains. We managed to reach 955m, about a km short of the summit of this mountain, but the wind was too strong. We were knocked to the ground and when standing, were buffetted towards waters of the loch 600m below. I can't remember being defeated by the wind on a hill in 24years. I grabbed a quick picture of the view between gusts.

So, with hoods down, and zips up, we retreated to Ben Alder bothy to lick our wounds. The rain became incessant, blowing across the loch in sheets. Fortunately we found a sheltered spot to camp on the shore of Loch Ericht.