Wee clip of yesterday on Stob Coire Sgriodain

Apologies for the heavy breathing, I had been ploughing uphill through the drifts!

Loch Treig Munros

A jaunt out west today to climb the lovely Loch Treig Munros----Stob Coire Sgriodain 979m & Chno Dearg 1046m from Fersit. In summer this is a relatively easy day, but today felt much harder, with lots of soft snow to trail-break in for the whole day. The avalanche hazard was Considerable today (3/5) so some careful route choice required even on these relatively innocuous hills. It was nice to have a rare calm day after all the winds and storms we have had----the latest storm, Storm Imogen, seems to have hit Southern England instead for a change.

Stunning morning

...and again

The ridge up to Stob Coire Sgriodain
 

Loch Treig. It's views like this that make Scotland so special

Plenty of windslab around

Fantastic

Crampons off--always a nice feeling!

Typically Scotland

Back below the snowline

Nice to take the boots off......

Alpine winter

Back home to snowy Scotland after 10 days away in the French Alps. The first week was taken up with the winter training course for the International Mountain Leader (IML) award, delivered by IML and IFMGA guide staff from Plas y Brenin. We covered lots including client care in winter, snowpack assessment, avalanche rescue, terrain choice as well as the winter environment. Really useful course, and I am looking forward to taking the winter assessment next year, which is the last step in the training scheme. After the course we stayed on for several days and enjoyed some great snowshoeing in the wider Aravis mountains, and researched local culture (food and wine!). One particularly interesting day was spent doing a circuit of and above the Plateau des Glieres......this is a fascinating area historically as it was here that the local Resistance (Maquis de Glieres) hid from the combined might of the German army and Vichy France. It was even chosen as a site for air dropping supplies by the RAF. Quite rightly it is an important site for France, and there is a definite atmosphere about the place. A fabulous restaurant there too! Lots of new snow in the Alps---a winter wonderland, and cold at -10 deg C at times........no different from Scotland at the moment then!



Hard work in deep powder

As cold as it looks.....

IML Journey

The soft light of early evening

My turn out front

Practising a multiple burial avalanche scenario

Above the Plateau des Glieres

Narnia?

Winter wonderland

Working our way through the trees

Local Savoie culture!

Lonely Monadhliath

Today was still a Public Holiday north of the border. You wouldn't have known it---once away from the car area we saw nobody all day. Plenty of deer, hare and ptarmigan though. To be fair, a cursory glance at the weather forecast this morning may have made even the determined roll over for another 40 winks.....gale force winds, 0% chance of cloud-free Munros, and blizzards. Hmmm. Deeper in the forecast was some more detail though---that the hills west of the A9 such as the Monadhliath would remain predominantly dry with higher cloud bases. And so it faired...thank you MWIS! Even the wind wasn't much of a problem. We climbed Carn Dearg 945m from Glen Banchor above Newtonmore. We biked up the glen and then up the track alongside the Allt Fionndrigh before switching to walking mode to head over into Gleann Ballach and thus onto the summit. We weren't expecting much snow, and there was none to be had until around the 800m mark, when there were fairly hefty patches of mostly old snow, requiring some step-kicking. A late start meant we were chasing the gloaming as we wheeled easily back to the car. A great day out!

Biking up

Up the glen

Some tramping

Taking a breather

At the snowline

Spot the ptarmigan?

Booting up

Moody view across to Lochaber

Warm cragging

December can't seem to make up its mind.....last weekend it was -5 deg C during the day with plenty of snow for skiing and snowshoeing, today was +13 deg C, so most of the snow has now gone. It pays to be adaptable though and we had a good day today cragging on the Moray coast at Cummingston, near Elgin.

Alex cruising on Doddle Diedre, Severe *

Winter inspiration

Take a look at another fabulous video from Perfect View Productions, this time of the winter Cairngorms. Here is what the film-maker, Kirk Watson, had to say:

(Click HD for a nice viewing experience!) Well winter has arrived so I thought I'd get the drone out for a wee fly up Sgor Gaoith, Glen Feshie area, in the Cairngorms. I'll be flying a lot during the winter and a show reel will come later in the winter but thought I'd pop this together to show some snow from the air:) Need to invest in some touch screen gloves, got my first hot aches of the year from flying without gloves! Feel free to share the wee film:) Thanks Tom Marshall for being the screen talent!

Winter has arrived
(Click HD for a nice viewing experience!) Well winter has arrived so I thought I'd get the drone out for a wee fly up Sgor Gaoith, Glen Feshie area, in the Cairngorms. I'll be flying a lot during the winter and a show reel will come later in the winter but thought I'd pop this together to show some snow from the air:) Need to invest in some touch screen gloves, got my first hot aches of the year from flying without gloves! Feel free to share the wee film:) Thanks Tom Marshall for being the screen talent!
Posted by Perfect View Productions on Sunday, 13 December 2015

Still wintry

Back from some family time away to find the Highlands still very wintry. Driving back from the Central Belt today the thermometer hovered around -5 deg C the whole way. Looked to be more snow in the west, less further east, though variable. Good cover on the West Drumochter Munros for those thinking of a ski tour.......

The Northern Cairngorms today