An Socach, 21st February 2015

I haven't been out on the hills much over the winter for a variety of reasons, so I was kind of itching to get out at least once. I'm now living at least a two and half-hour drive from the nearest unclimbed Munro, so it's a full day guaranteed, even for the smallest hills.

I took a look at my book and there was one I hadn't managed to achieve in Glenshee - An Socach. Normally I'd wait until I have a free weekend with Steg, but he was working and he'd also climbed that one, so that made it a particularly good choice.

The forecast was good - pretty cold, but the warmer weather the previous week had reduced the snow on the hills in that area by quite a bit, so the avalanche risk was quite diminished.

I headed off just after 7:30am and made good time up the road to Perth, then it was a bit slower to Spittal of Glenshee. I parked up on the A93 and started my walk at 9:45am.

The sun was out and I was sheltered from the North Westerly by the hills. It was surprisingly warm for the time of year, but as soon as you were exposed to that wind, it took all the heat away.

As soon as I arrived, these stunning white horses were stood in a pine plantation, looking every inch like something from Middle-Earth.

Middle Earth

I followed the track up the south side of the Baddoch Burn to the lovely cottage at Baddoch. I don't know what it's used for, but it looks very well-kept.

Baddoch

I pressed on, to the point where the Allt Coire Fhearneasg meets the Baddoch burn and attempted to make a crossing. Crossing the burn wasn't easy - there had been a lot of snow melt, so the rivers were very swollen, and quite ferocious too. The small burn on the map proved to be bigger deal than I had expected. However, I did have my poles and my gaiters on so I pressed on up stream until I found a suitable crossing point. I could have carried on up the burn, but that would have put me in the path of any fall-off from the cornice on An Socach. I didn't figure that out until later, but I knew I wanted to stay on the rounded shoulder of Socach Mor to avoid any steep slopes, especially at this time of year. I guess I'm getting more cautious these days....

The next stop was the cairn that was visible from the foot of the burn. I made that at about 11:15am  Snow was getting more patchy, but it was soft underfoot. The cairn stands at 690m and that's the point at which the wind really started to hit me. Because of that, the soft snow became harder but it wasn't crampon time yet.

An Socach from the cairn at 690m

Looking down the glen from the cairn at 690m

From here on in, the snow started to become less patchy and more consistent, so at about 750m, it was time to drop the poles and go for crampons and axe.

The snow line

I'd only met one other person by this point, so it did feel nicely isolated :-)

The plan from here was to press on up to the start of the summit ridge, and that's what I did. It became rockier and rockier until the summit was essentially a boulder field with a thin covering of snow, but a few icy patches hidden beneath. I made the eastern end of the ridge right on midday.

NOT the summit of An Socach

I guess if you weren't paying attention to the map, you could have decided you'd made the summit and head home, but I double checked with the map first and confirmed by GPS. Nope, I still had another 2km to walk along the ridge to gain 6m in altitude....

The wind up here was just vicious - walking was hard with the crampons on the rocks and ice and into the wind as well - not easy and a bit sore on the cheeks too.

I made the proper summit of An Socach at 12:45pm and stopped for a very quick sandwich.

#summitselfie

An Socach summit

I decided to dump the crampons at this stage and go for poles for the return walk along the ridge. It was so rocky that I decided that if I walked on the rocks and not the snow patches it might be the safest and fastest way. I did have a fall on ice though, so I guess the lesson learned is to be patient.

I ended up putting the crampons on again when I reached the eastern end of the ridge and I kept them on pretty much back to the cairn.

I made it back down to the Baddoch Burn, just the same way I came at 2:30pm. By then I was out of the wind again and the sun was still out. The walk back to the car was really pleasant, and I made it back to the car for 3:15pm.

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