Into the mist on Beinn Airigh Charr

Climbed by year and month

Climbed by year and month

The Met Office mountain forecast for the north west said the mist would clear giving 80% chance of cloud free summits "early afternoon". So I hoped I'd have a nice cool walk-in and get a good view from the summit...

Beinn Airigh Charr means the hill of the mossy sheiling.

Arriving at Poolewe I tried to park in the walkers car park beside the bridge but I'd either block the entrance, or get blocked in if anyone else came parked, so I went up to the larger car park by the shop. Later put a couple of quid in the donations box as I passed by. Coffee and biscuits was had and much appreciated - it seems to give me a bit of boost to do the 'mind of matter' thing.

Marching along the road and then track from Poolewe my mind was set: I'd not take the short-cut path across the moor. I'd go via Kernsary Farm and stay on the decent track, it's further but figured I might be as quick and without the annoyance and boggyness of the path. I was. The climb out of Kernsary was easy and we kept a good pace. Mist hung about making everything wet. With little breeze I'd thought the midges might be a problem but they seemed to have stayed in bed this morning.

We were soon into the mist proper. Skye disappearing ahead so much I kept having to call her to wait. Whilst I kept an eye on the map and knew roughly where I was it's still pretty disconcerting with visibility down to only the likes of 20 metres.

Gradually the clear path becomes fainter and much harder to follow. I figured we were at the most south-east point and probably needed to head north-east, but the path had fizzled out and the ground was very steep grass with ribbons of scree. It looked plausible but since I had phone coverage I checked on WalkLakes mobile app to make sure. It confirmed. We still couldn't see much, just grass, scree and creepy crags in the mist.

Whilst Skye is generally okay-ish following a clear path she's really poor when people spread out. I thought back to Jessie who had an amazing knack of picking out the right trail. I could have done with her just then.

Arriving at the summit it looked promising that the cloud would clear. No view down but glimpses of distant hills appeared, and disappeared just as rapidly. We stayed around for nearly an hour, eating lunch, waiting for a view. A guy appeared through the mist, he'd come up from Carnmore up to Beinn Lair which was clear, and then over to here.

With time marching on I made the decision to head back.