I hate writing meet reports. They are the bane of my life and take up so much time. When complaining to someone one they suggested I get A.I. to write the report. This sounded like a futile idea to me that will take more time than writing it myself. But I though what the hell this could be a laugh…
Invercroft Meet — Invercroft Hut, Achnasheen
We were based at the excellently located Invercroft Hut near Achnasheen for this meet, giving easy access to a wide spread of Torridon and northern Highlands objectives. As is often the case, plans were guided by the forecast, with a few making an early start to take advantage of the better weather window at the beginning of the weekend.
Thursday / Friday — Beating the weather
Dave, Lee and Mark headed up on Thursday night to make the most of the improved conditions expected on Friday. This paid off with a productive day climbing on Beinn Eighe, where they tackled Vertigo and Stoater on Coire an Laoigh (Bonnach Ban / Bonnet Dhonn area), making the most of the dry rock and clear spell before the weather turned.
Svetlana also made the effort to drive up after work on Thursday, opting for a big day in the hills on Friday. She ticked off Eididh nan Clach Geala and Meall nan Ceapraichean, making good use of the settled conditions.
The rest of the group arrived at the hut on Friday evening, settling in for the weekend ahead with a full house and good plans—albeit tempered by a decidedly damp forecast for Saturday.
Saturday — Forecast wrong (for once)
Saturday was expected to be a washout, but in a welcome twist the weather proved far kinder than advertised, staying largely dry with decent conditions on the hill.
A strong group of Mark, Dave, Lee, Neil, Annalisa and Kelly headed up Fuar Tholl. What began as a cautious “see how it goes” day turned into an enjoyable outing with good views, and a particularly notable milestone—this was Kelly’s first Corbett.
Elsewhere, Luis and Bea opted for a more relaxed morning in the hut before heading out for a shorter walk into Coire Lair. Reports suggest a leisurely pace… though Luis apparently still managed to fit in a bit of work.
Alexis took on Sgorr Ruadh, making the most of the unexpectedly benign conditions for a classic Torridon hill day.
Svetlana, showing excellent forward planning, chose to rest and head back south later that day ahead of work commitments the following morning.
Sunday — Making the most of the rock
With improved conditions again on Sunday, attention turned to rock climbing.
Lee, Dave and Mark headed to Stone Valley, climbing Bald Eagle, the classic Open Secret, and Blood Feud—making the most of the quality routes and dry conditions.
Luis and Alexis travelled to Diabaig, climbing at the excellent seaside crag there and enjoying some of the best rock on the west coast in fine conditions.
For those heading back south, Annalisa, Kelly and Bea made a very worthwhile detour, walking up Ben Wyvis on the way home. This marked another big tick for Kelly—her first Munro—rounding off a particularly successful weekend in the hills.
Summary
A meet that started with careful weather‑dodging ended up delivering far better conditions than expected. From early‑start climbing days to first Corbetts and Munros, and a good mix of hills and rock across the weekend, Invercroft proved once again to be an excellent base.
Good company, varied objectives, and a few unexpected breaks in the weather—hard to complain.
…holly sh*t I’m impressed!
A few errors in that Vertigo and Stoater are not on Beinn Eighe (they are on Beinn a Mhuinidh) which is nowhere near Coire an Laoigh and ‘Bonnach Ban / Bonnet Dhonn’ is an interesting take on ‘The Bonaid Dhonn’ and it was being a bit overdramatic with the weather. But generally, it seemed to do a good job of making some vague information that didn’t tell anyone very much into a reasonable story that still didn’t tell anyone very much but sounded pretty good.
I particularly like the ‘A strong group of…’ and ‘Svetlana, showing excellent forward planning…’ quote
If I could be bothered, I could probably tidy this up into a reasonably good write up of the weekend.
A new eara has begun! Maybe you’ll not have to wait 3 months for a meet report from me from now on Douglas…
….I just need to work out how to get it to fix the frigging formatting in the posts app on the website, fix the annoying scroll function, upload photos to the website, add (the correct) meta data and insert them into the report for me (the latter wasted another hour and a half of my life).