A wintery day on the Mainland

Lucy: It's been a long damp dark autumn, and the snow has been slower to arrive than some years, but the mainland is at last looking persistantly wintery and there is snow in the forecast for Arran towards the end of the week! Yesterday I was in the east of Scotland catching up on some hill time with my friend Jen.

Jen who is normally unstoppable,  is recovering from injury so we picked a relatively easy day that we could adapt and make longer if we wished. The munros to the east of Dalwhinnie fitted the bill perfectly, with a land rover track from roadside to ridge, and a gently undulating plateau to explore.  We targeted Carn na Caim first. It's a steep climb up from the road but not difficult and before we knew it we were away from the hustle and bustle of the A9 and enjoying the open feel of the heathery plateau.  Visibility was mostly good, but a few whisps of cloud played with us from time to time. Crampons were not needed, but it was bitterly cold. There was a dusting of snow, the ground was mostly frozen, and the light was gorgeous. 

We made short work of Carn na Caim, and feeling strong, headed for A' Bhuidheanach Beag. It wasn't long before we were congratulating ourselves on the second summit of the day and heading down. All that remained to top off a perfect day was to grab a brew and a bowl of soup by the cosy fire at Dalwhinnie's Snack Shack.

Snow is coming to Arran in the next few days so give us a shout if you fancy a guided day in the Arran hills this weekend with a Winter Mountain Leader.  If you also fancy a mainland Winter Munro Day, we are taking bookings and enquiries for March- just get in touch and we will endeavor get back to you straight away.

Snowshoes in Scotland

Lucy writes: Jen and I headed up in to the Monadhliath yesterday for a day of navigation and running around in the snow. It was meant to be an easy day, but Geal Charn is a fair slog up, and with the bad vis and full on micro nav it felt like a proper Scottish day out.  I was delighted that there was enough good snow for me to spend most of the day in snowshoes. Poor Jen had to wade bare booted for much for the day. Nails!

Na Gruagaichean

The last couple of days have seen a gradual thaw accompanied by damp conditions.  We didn't let that stop us today and headed up on to the hills above Kinlochleven with friend Jen. Once on the ride, the wind was pretty ferocious and conditions under foot slippery with wet snow and melting ice. We topped out on Na Gruagaichean and retraced our steps towards Kinlochleven.

As we descended below the cloudbase, we were treated to the most fabulous views of Loch Leven and the Pap of Glencoe.

Looking for the White Room in the MonadhLiadh

With fresh snow overnight and more falling, we headed out East today for a bit of a winter warm up, in search of the famous "White Room" and some navigation.  Although snow fell all day, we didn't really find whiteout conditions, but we did do plenty of nav: up A' Cailleach and over towards Carn Slugain, two rounded Munros in the Monadhliadh. We had a great day, visited a bothy we hadn't been to before. We enjoyed a few sightings of bounding mountain hares along the way.

Mountain Hare tracks

Creag Meagaidh winterish

Lucy writes: We are enjoying settling in to our base up near Fort William and although winter is a little sparse at the moment, we've been seeking it out up high.  Today Wally and I set off with friend Jen for Creag Meagaidh. With cold firm snow patches, its in very friendly condition for hill walkers at the moment, with none of the frequent avalanche hazard in The Window.

Not much snow in The Window!

It was cold and beautiful up on the Plateau. A chilly wind kept everyone moving to the summit. We descended via Puist Coire Ardair and cut steps on several snow patches on the way down.

Viewranger track of our route.