This morning I decided to go for a walk up Bynack More. The weather and avalanche forecast looked pretty grim so this Munro that is approached by a North facing ridge seemed like a good idea.

It was an atmospheric walk in the woods as I raced through the forest behind Glenmore Lodge. There was low cloud and drizzle falling steadily. However being out on my own for the first time this year filled me with enthusiasm and I was rocketing along at about 4km per hour. I was quickly out of the woods and blasting along the well made track to the bridge that crosses Strath Nethy. By 9am I was at the bridge.

With the first, flat, part of the walk over I started gaining hight. As I started gaining hight I moved into the cloud base. As one tends to find when walking alone over the wide places of the highlands my mind was wandering too. I considered things like the swirling mists, the deadening of sound, and how reasonable, sensible people can believe in things like the 'big grey man' of MacDui.  Very easily I managed to creep myself out. 

Then just after the first snow field I cam across the single oddest thing I have ever found on a mountain. Someones shoes, and pack lunch. Abandoned. I can safely say that it weirded me out. 

However I carried on through the swirling mists towards my target for the day, which was now only a few km ahead of me. It was worth it. As I clambered up the rounded but rocky ridge the cloud cleared and I had the privilege to be rewarded with some stunning view.

It was now 11am and I was hungry and on the summit of my mountain. I sat and ate a well deserved lunch. I could have sat there all day drinking in that view. 

After about half an hour I decided to turn my back on Cairngorm, Shelter stone crag, and the Saddle and turn back towards Glenmore Lodge. As I refaced my footsteps I met a whole bunch of people who were on their way up. I had left the top just in time. For me its still an isolated peak that I had to myself. The walk back proved uneventful apart from a brief conversation about the snow conditions that I had with a chap with and incredible beard! 

Being board I put some music on and wandered back through the valley singing along to myself. Yes I was listening to bagpipe music. Who could resist? I found myself back at the BBV just before half one. 5h 30min from when I started. Not bad for 24km.

Shock Horror! A blog post being posted on the day its about! When was the last time I managed this?How have I managed this I hear you ask?

Well Will and I had an early start munro bagging today. He and his friends had to head back to South Wales today, and Sarah was heading South for work. So while they went off dry tooling, Will and I decided to go grab the Munro we hadn't managed yesterday. 

What a difference a few hours can make! Yesterday was clear blue skies, today was whiteout. Yesterday we could see miles on end, today we could see 50m, so long as the other of us was standing there. otherwise you couldn't see a thing. Just white. 

So thats my excuse for the lack of photos, nothing to take them of. 

Instead we practiced walking on a bearing. Well I practices while Will corrected me. We did this by him standing in one place. I would walk off on my bearing for about 50m then turn around and look back at him. He would then indicate left, right or OK. to indicate which way I needed to correct my bearing. I would then stamp a platform and start again while he made his way to my platform.

In this manner we navigated our way across the plateau, first to one minor summit, followed by a second then a munro. 

Every so often we would use technology to make sure that we hadn't missed our summits. The GPS showed us standing on top of the trig pint (blue triangle). As far as we we're aware it was a flat field of snow. We dug a good foot into the snow trying to find it, but gave up due to lack of time. 

We then turned and headed back for the BBV. From the 'h' on the righthand of the picture, to the 'F' of Fuar Mhonadh we saw nothing. Just white. That said when we did have a view  we saw huge numbers of Arctic bunnies. At one point we counted 20.

We were off the hill and back in the BBV by 1:20pm. not bad going for a mornings walk.

Yesterday we decided to head out to the Drumochter Hills. Despite being called "Hills" they are full blown Munros. As is typical of the East side of the highlands these are a collection of rolling Arctic plateaus. They could be in Svalbard, if it wasn't for the presence of the A9 cutting through them. 

Sarah, Will and I popped up on to the plateau and over to the summit of Carn na Caim. It was a beautiful day. Stunning blue skies and fresh snow. That said it was windy. The snow was moving so quickly that it would fill my steps before Will had a chance to step in them. On our way back from the Munro giant sastrugi had formed over our tracks! Stastrugi are wind blown, liner sculptures that form parallel to the wind. Quite beautiful really. 

I can safely say that the Drumochter Hills were made for Ski touring. By the time we got back to our entry point to the plateau we were all pretty tired and willing to leave the second munro for another day. We bombed it back down to the BBV and retired to Aviemore for macaroni and cheese with garlic bread. Scrummy. 

The BBV had an appointment at the garage this morning so we had a late start on our mountain day.
We picked my friend Will up from Aviemore at 12 then headed strait for the Ski Centre car park. Our objective was the Fiacaill Coire an t'Sneachda. This grade I/II ridge is a winter classic, but more conveniently, only a 4h round trip. A perfect afternoon jaunt, and it was a perfect afternoon. 

We boshed in to the Northern Coires and were quickly on the ridge. A brisk tramp along and the scrambling started. We had planed to make the ridge go at its lower grade so we didn't carry ropes or climbing hard wear. Consequently we had to walk round both the ice chimneys on the second step of the route. Still a fantastic route without them. The ridge is beautiful and the tricky steps are all to easily avoided by walking to the right of them. 

After topping out of the route we deiced that there was still enough time to head over to the summit of Cairngorm to take a look at the Igloo. From there it was simple plod down the now deserted ski slopes and back to the van.

After yesterdays epic round from the North Face car park we decided to give the CMD a second chance. 

The weather was supposed to be even better than yesterday. The winds were supposed to be negligible (15mph) and there was a 60% chance of cloud free munros. It was the best weather forecast we had seen all year. 

We set off early. Rather than repeat the same route up to Carn Beag Dearg we opted to go up the slope we had come down, knowing full well that it would be icy and hard going, but hoping that it would be quicker than the ridge. 

With the aid of more step cutting on my part we made it up to Carn Dearg Meadhonach with relative speed. I am in no hurry to cut steps up 300m of ice again. It was worth it though. As we reached the summit the cloud blew off and wow. Simply Wow.

The views of the North Face of the Ben were stunning. It glowed in the morning sun. We tramped along to Carn Mor Dearg, then stepped onto the Arête. 

The ridge its self is narrow and airy. Simply beautiful. The scrambling isn't too sustained, but throughly engaging. This is serious no slip terrain. 

All I can really say is that this is one of the best days out I have had in a long time. We summited Ben Nevis then navigated our way down the tourist track. Unfortunately the cloud didn't lift off the summit so there were no summit views. We ended the day in the Ben Nevis Inn. I maintain its one of the best pubs in Scotland. At least it feels like the best place in the world as you sink on to the benches and take that first sip of a well deserved pint. The whole day out took us 8h. Not bad going at all.