Despite my protestations that I would have a day off, I didn’t. After a few hours relaxing in coffee shops in Aviemore, and a look at the weather forecast (just to make sure) I was convinced to head up an “easy”, “Roadside” Munro with Sue and Nick. It was to be a relaxing day practicing navigation. It was an “easy bag”.
So I agreed. At an ungodly hour my alarm went off and I dressed and went to meet Sue for a day on Meall Chuaich.
And it was. We measured our paces and worked out slop angles and practiced our timings. All important stuff to practice. Anyway we popped up the Munro navigating our way to the summit. All too often it’s easy to fall in to the trap of following the path or just heading “up” till you reach the summit.
The summit was a wind blasted plateau with a massive cairn at the top. The cairn looked spectacular coated in its rime ice. (Rime ice is super cooled moisture particles in the air that freeze on impact with a surface).
From the Summit we decided not to re trace our steps, but instead to head straight off the side of the hill till we reached the quad bike track that the estate’s beaters used.
An hour later we were back at the car, just as heavy snow started to fall. It was a jolly good day out! “Off the Hill for Tea and cake at 4 o’clock” as a national outdoor centre would say.
So I agreed. At an ungodly hour my alarm went off and I dressed and went to meet Sue for a day on Meall Chuaich.
And it was. We measured our paces and worked out slop angles and practiced our timings. All important stuff to practice. Anyway we popped up the Munro navigating our way to the summit. All too often it’s easy to fall in to the trap of following the path or just heading “up” till you reach the summit.
The summit was a wind blasted plateau with a massive cairn at the top. The cairn looked spectacular coated in its rime ice. (Rime ice is super cooled moisture particles in the air that freeze on impact with a surface).
From the Summit we decided not to re trace our steps, but instead to head straight off the side of the hill till we reached the quad bike track that the estate’s beaters used.
An hour later we were back at the car, just as heavy snow started to fall. It was a jolly good day out! “Off the Hill for Tea and cake at 4 o’clock” as a national outdoor centre would say.
Cool rime ice on the summit cairn.