Monday morning. My alarm goes off at about 7am. What is wrong with my life? I'm not being paid to be up this early. Its cold in the van. I have to reach out from my duvet to light the stove, to heat the kettle and the van. Is it worth it?
Yes. Always. Its winter. There are mountains to discover and people to discover them with. The forecast for the day is very strong Westerly winds. However Will and I have planned our day well and chosen to head to Newtonmore where there are a couple of Munros that we should get up with out much trouble.
We parked the BBV at the end of a narrow icy road. Its not an early start by the time we have finished sorting out our kit and left the van. Three chaps have already overtaken us and headed off up the track towards the distant mountains. I'm going to claim that this was tactical on our part as we got to follow there tracks for the first hour and thus avoided the arduous task of breaking trail in the soft snow.
We folllowed a 4x4 truck up the side of a burn towards A' Chailleach, our first munro. Unfortunately the mountain was on the far side of this quite substantial river, so we followed it past the washed out fords hoping to find somewhere that we could cross.
Yes. Always. Its winter. There are mountains to discover and people to discover them with. The forecast for the day is very strong Westerly winds. However Will and I have planned our day well and chosen to head to Newtonmore where there are a couple of Munros that we should get up with out much trouble.
We parked the BBV at the end of a narrow icy road. Its not an early start by the time we have finished sorting out our kit and left the van. Three chaps have already overtaken us and headed off up the track towards the distant mountains. I'm going to claim that this was tactical on our part as we got to follow there tracks for the first hour and thus avoided the arduous task of breaking trail in the soft snow.
We folllowed a 4x4 truck up the side of a burn towards A' Chailleach, our first munro. Unfortunately the mountain was on the far side of this quite substantial river, so we followed it past the washed out fords hoping to find somewhere that we could cross.
A' Chailleach catches the morning sun.
We are supposed to cross where?
Will pioneered a crossing at a possible looking place. I didn't have much faith in his ability to get across with out getting wet, I very much doubted that I would get across dry even if he did, so i did the only sensible thing and started videoing. At least it would be a youtube sensation if he did get wet.
He made it across. So did I . Thankfully we both had walking poles otherwise it would have been a very tricky crossing. Just as I made it across the river (dry) the three other intrepid hill walkers came down stream to follow our crossing. Apparently there was noting better further up.
The first chap got across without issue, he used his poles; the other two decided to brave it without poles and we were quite sure that they got wet feet, but would admit to nothing.
We went our separate ways then. Will and I planned to use the mountain to shield us from the battering that we were sure to get from the wind; the other three decided to try and find the path and follow that then follow along the ridge, fully exposed to the wrath of the wind.
Well we headed onward and upward until we eventually reached the summit. As we sat at the summit enjoying a brief restate from the wind the other three guys joined us. One of them looked slightly worse for wear. We had a pleasant chat and explained that we were heading for the second Munro and the lead guy expressed and intention to follow behind with his friends.
So off we walked into the wind. The snow was perfect. Solid wind scoured snow, we just walked over it without sinking. From the summit of Carn Sgùlain, our second munro, it was apparent that the others had retuned the way they had come up.
He made it across. So did I . Thankfully we both had walking poles otherwise it would have been a very tricky crossing. Just as I made it across the river (dry) the three other intrepid hill walkers came down stream to follow our crossing. Apparently there was noting better further up.
The first chap got across without issue, he used his poles; the other two decided to brave it without poles and we were quite sure that they got wet feet, but would admit to nothing.
We went our separate ways then. Will and I planned to use the mountain to shield us from the battering that we were sure to get from the wind; the other three decided to try and find the path and follow that then follow along the ridge, fully exposed to the wrath of the wind.
Well we headed onward and upward until we eventually reached the summit. As we sat at the summit enjoying a brief restate from the wind the other three guys joined us. One of them looked slightly worse for wear. We had a pleasant chat and explained that we were heading for the second Munro and the lead guy expressed and intention to follow behind with his friends.
So off we walked into the wind. The snow was perfect. Solid wind scoured snow, we just walked over it without sinking. From the summit of Carn Sgùlain, our second munro, it was apparent that the others had retuned the way they had come up.
Will gritting his teeth into the wind.
Perfect Scottish winter weather?
We headed round above the tributaries of the main river so as to avoid having to cross the river later and then dropped back to the valley. Now it was just a case of plodding our way back to the van. Eventually we reached it just as the sunset had faded to inky blackness. A true quality winter day out.