The aim of the day was Stob Binnein. We'd done Ben More a couple of winters ago so decided that a wander up the glen beside the Benmore Burn to the Bealach-eadar-dha Beinn and then onto Stob Binnein was the best option. My inability to get out of bed delayed our start so we didn't hit the trail til after 10am. We still figured there would be plenty of time but we were soon reviewing this as we hit the open ground to find that the snow wanted to play games. It was exhausting constantly hauling ourselves out of knee to waist deep snow. Realising that my lack of fitness was also having a major impact on progress I took the stubborn head off, put the sensible one on and said to Steve this hill was not ours to be had today. Still felt great to be out though
I've had these on a few times now and so far they are just what I've been after to get me through the winter for most of my days out. Salomon describe them as being perfect for "light hiking" - take that whatever way you want ;-) They come in at 1210g for the pair and feel fairly easy on the feet. They've handled saturated grassy stuff without me applying the famous arse plant (so far!!). They even seemed to be OK on rocky stuff too. Where I have been really impressed with them is how they handled the snow on Na Gruagaichan. It was hard enough that we were kicking steps. This was easy enough for Steve in his Scarpa SL's and Iain in his La Sportiva Nepals. Initially I followed their steps then decided to give it a go myself. I occasionally had to kick a couple of times on some of the really hard stuff, probably more down to my poor technique than the boot, but they managed well on the cover we had for the ascent. As my balance is rubbish I decided to apply...
That's a cracking photie.
ReplyDeleteI failed to make it up a hill last time out as well - but that was my fault, because I never bothered to look at the map, and got lost.
At least you had an excuse!
;)
Too MANY paths was your problem Scott ;-) You got some good photies on that outing anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the snow gets a bit more solidified before my trip to the Fannichs in a couple of weeks or we are going to have to seriously reconsider what hills to do.
Aye, the holiday of nae hills right enough!
ReplyDeleteOne more day of the holidays left to see if I can rectify that :-)
ReplyDelete