Winter Solstice

I admit that the dark does get to me a little at this time of the year.. You get up in the dark, it's dark when you get to work, and dark when you leave, in fact you see no daylight, apart from through the work windows.

Heading that way!

an teallach

At weekends when you experience day light it seems like another world...! So to mark the shortest day and because it was a good forecast I headed out in to the Fannies, oops I mean Fannich's.

Little pathside howf

Sgurr Mor

The fannies are great hills, more rugged than the East coast massive such as the Cairngorms and pretty quiet as most folk drive past them to Torridon or basically anywhere on the West.

Loch a' Mhadaidh

nearly at the col. Sgurr Mor beyond

I had a couple of hills to tidy up in this area so headed out at dawn. Initially I followed the old hydro tracks from Loch Droma. After this path quickly  deteriorated to Loch a' Mhadaidh. Surprisingly after the loch there was no path, or at least I couldn't see one, which surprised me.

climbing opportunities... 

Follow the ridge to the second hill

The earlier snow dump had greatly thawed, but patches remained and these were quite hard neve today. Heading up from the loch to the col (Eag nam Fear-bogha) I had a couple of interesting moments trying to stick with the micro spikes on the bullet hard snow because I was too lazy to put on my crampons.

jump for joy on Sgurr Mor

The day, weather, views were all fantastic and from the col I quickly got to the top of Sgurr Mor and then allowed myself a break for a snack and to take some pictures. The views were astounding, with Ullapool to the North, Ben Wyvis to the East and lots of interesting winter climbing in the surrounding hills.

looking back to Sgurr Mor. Here comes the cloud

The forecast suggested the cloud coming in around lunchtime from the West and just after leaving Sgurr Mor and dropping some height the cloud capped it's top as predicted.

Looking back up the pipe line!

From here I quickly nipped up Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich on my way back. From here I headed North and back to the van over easy but pathless terrain. I great way to spend 6 hours on the shortest day of the year.