Due to a knee injury I was unable to head into the hills to enjoy a beautiful morning of Scottish winter walking or climbing, so I made the most of the excellent conditions by extracting myself from bed in time for sunrise. Initially I started down at the end of the reservoir formed by the Laggan Dam, and then heading to the beach at Kinloch Laggan. The morning was totally still and made for a beautiful morning with crisp reflections, unfortunately the cloud towards the east prevented a beautiful sunrise.
I had planned on doing a big winter walk which would have included Creag Meagaidh, Stob Poite Coire Ardair and Carn Liath however on the walk up to Coire Ardair it became apparent that it was not going to be possible due to a knee injury. Despite not completing the walk, it was great to be in fantastic scenery in good weather again. Before I turned back I managed to get a few photos to capture the stroll up the valley.
It has been a few years since we winter climbed in Scotland, mostly due to injuries and conditions. This year we decided we wanted to get back into it, but unfortunately conditions were making it difficult. The option with the safest approach seems to be the Mess of Pottage at Coire an t-Sneachda in the Cairngorms. We decided to climb hidden chimney again as a suitable re-introduction to Scottish winter, unfortunately so did a large number of other people. The walk in was surprisingly easy given how much snow was on the ground, and by the time we had arrived in the coire the cloud had lifted and showed us an excellent view of the crag, and the army of climbers in front of us. Thankfully not many teams had already approached Hidden Chimney. We started the route behind out friends James and Jon and had a very enjoyable climb. It wasn’t too cold and the conditions on the climb were excellent, and very different to last time we climbed the route. There was some very poor crag etiquette going on with a team climbing over us and the team. Read the full article…
With the weather looking significantly better in the east we chose to do another Corbett to make the most of any of the better weather. The start of the walk took us up the Burma road, which was fairly snowy from a low level. Despite the snow we were able to make good progress and enjoy the brilliant views back towards the Cairngorms. As the snow became deeper we all put on our snow shoes, which made the path easier, but I don’t think they made a significant difference. As we left the path to head up to the summit the poor weather came in, so the compass came back out. The show shoes also started to provide a significant benefit and we were certainly grateful for them. The descent was lovely and it was really great to see the Cairngorms from afar and from up high. It was really impressive seeing the vast expanse and how easy it was to identify a number of the major features of the range.
The weather forecast for the first day of our trip wasn’t brilliant, so we elected for a short day on a local Corbett called The Fara. The walk in along Loch Ericht in the morning was beautiful in the sunshine, the estate gatehouse was very impressive. After a relatively short distance we were at the start of the steep ascent up a clearing between different plantations. The start of the ascent was brutal as it involved a very steep ascent with very deep snow. As we got to the top of the plantations the gradient eased off, and the poor weather started to come in. Becky was able to make good use of her new snow shoes which made the going much easier for her. As we ascended the weather deteriorated and we were soon in the white room and unable to tell what was up from down. As we were approaching the summit we had to make a detour to avoid a slope which was fairly loaded with wind slab. After some quick lunch at the summit we made a hasty descent back down. It was fairly easy going. Read the full article…
I headed down to see David and Nicky for a weekend in Holsworthy. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t playing ball for photography, and we had a weekend of strong winds and grey skies, however this didn’t dampen our spirits and we still headed out to have a fun weekend of photography. We made the best of the conditions and it really make us work at our composition, however the results were never going to be spectacular given the lack of light. We headed out to the relatively close locations of Trebarwith Strand and Crackington Haven which allowed us to spend some time by the sea, have some lunch in a pub, go for an enjoyable drive up the coast and then do some more photography before heading back home.
After a number of years of wanting to do the Nantlle Ridge, we finally ended up in North Wales with a weather window which would enable us to enjoy the ridge at it’s best. As the weather was best in the morning we started fairly early, which enabled us to see a beautiful sunrise as we were leaving the hut in Rhyd Ddu. The start of the walk soon woke us up, but once we were established on the ridge it was just brilliant. We had wonderful views in every direction and good weather, apart from the very strong wind! The scrambling was not extensive, but some of it was fairly involved if you stayed on the ridge crest rather than skirting off on the path to the side. The final section of ridge before the descent was fairly hard going underfoot, and if I were to do the ridge again I might have descended sooner. We had dropped a car at the end the night before, but somehow avoided having to do shuttle runs as Becky managed to hitch a lift with the only person we saw all day,. Read the full article…
Last year was a year which was dominated photographically by snow, this year is unfortunately the polar opposite as winter never really turned up in the UK and weather didn’t allow us to spend that much time high up in the Alps in the summer. Despite the lack of snow it was another excellent year, with plenty of good walking, good photography, ski touring in the alps and excellent scrambling, via ferratas and climbing in the Italian Dolomites. Winter South of the border there was even less snow than in Scotland, however we were fortunate enough to make good use of the one snowy weekend with a walk in the Brecon Beacons. Other than the lack of snow we were lucky to have some excellent walking conditions while we were in the mountains, the highlight had to be walking up to High Raise from Grasmere in the Lake District. Scottish Winter We had a week booked in Scotland with the Avon Mountaineering Club, and there was absolutely no snow below the highest tops. Thankfully the lack of snow was made up for with a week of excellent weather, which allowed. Read the full article…
