One roll day in the Cairngorms

With a bonny weather forecast I headed down to the Cairngorms with Martin as I'd persuaded him to walk up Sgor Gaoith from Glen Feshie. We had a leisurely start and when we arrived the small forest carpark was pretty full.

Martin's philosophy of a later start and later finish seemed a little alien to me, its been drummed into me to start as early as possible, but actually as I'm also not a morning person either I might try this approach more in the future. The benefit is that you have a nice relaxing morning, more sleep, more coffee, and then you are more likely to catch the sunset/golden hour light whilst still up on the hill as we did today.

Glen Feshie and out West

On Geal-charn

There looked to be a nice covering of fresh snow as we geared up and Martin put on his race trainers and gaiters. He declared he might be quite slow today after a big walk on Beinn Eighe 2 days previously, but I was soon to learn that this wasn't the case at all!

Into the clag

We shot off with no one in sight and walked up through beautiful forest covered with a dusting of fresh snow. We headed NNE to the col between Creag Mhigeachaidh and Geal-charn before gaining this latter top and speedily crossing 4 minor tops before reaching the col North of Sgor Gaoith.

At about 1000m the weather changed and we were in cloud and the temperature dropped. From the col we firstly headed North to Sgoran Dubh Mor, meeting a couple of Eagle ski club members on this top who had changed their original ski plans to walking due to insufficient snow.

On Sgoran Dubh Mor with the Eagles!

Retracing our steps we headed due South and reached Sgor Gaoith. I'd hoped to see down to Loch Einich but alas it was too claggy, so we pressed on Southwards. I was also hoping for some food/lunch but Martin (the machine) was going well so we pressed on as there was no shelter up here.

Can Ban Mor

Near to Carn Ban Mor the weather lifted again, and we found a sheltered area and had some lunch. The views in all directions were spectacular and we drank them in, but we didn't linger as it was still very cold.

Up over Carn Ban Mor and we headed NW over some minor tops including Carn Ban Beag. This decent was pretty magical, beautiful snow to walk through, blue sky, calm/no wind, sun starting to go down casting some amazing light in every direction.

Its sad when these days come to an end, but as we walked back through the now gloomy forest, the trees still had a frost and slight dusting of snow on them, the path had an icy crunch and I thought that it had been a near perfect day out in the hills.

Footnote - On the drive back North Martin munched his 2nd lunch roll and declared the day had been a 1 roll day. I guess he meant easy and un-testing. I think as we went over so many tops, and had to take a bearing at one point in claggy weather I felt it was definitely complete sandwich day, which I guess equates to a 2 roll day in my eyes!!

Marginal Conditions...

The online chatter was 'off the chart' as lots of snow was predicted at the end of last week. Some snow did fall, but as often happens it came with gale force winds that didn't leave too much on the mountains (some accumulations with no base on E-SE aspects in general).

Phil skinning up

Nice views

It appears that if you wanted to find snow the best stuff was in the forests, and they cut lots of XC tracks in Glenmore forest. They had 6" or so on the forest trails to play with. Maybe I need some xc ski's for future years.....?

On the top checking the views

Like many people I scanned social media to try and find the most snow. For actual skiing the Llecht looked the best bet with quite a few runs expecting to open, but with the snow gates firmly closed it was a toss up between Cairngorm (CG) and the West. I nearly went to CG as they expected to open one short lift, thinking I could do some laps on this then go over the back to sniff out more snow.

Phil and Gav exploring the baseless snow patches

 However after getting a message from the Gav man who was heading up to Glencoe from Glasgow this gave me a direction to aim for, besides it would be good to catch up with him don't think I saw him last winter.

Gav on the dark side of Glencoe

A 5am get up saw me on a slow snowy drive to the Coe. The roads were really icy and slippery even with winter tyres on the van.

Glencoe looking great (the Buckle)

Theres not much to say about the skiing, we got the chair up, they had one short green run open so we skinned up to the top of the mountain. The weather was fine and views great. The first run down was hard (my first ski for one year!), some okay snow, then ice, then big pockets of 8-10" heavy snow. Hard going. It was interesting to follow Gav and Phil on their split boards. I think the heavy/deeper stuff suits a snow board as they seemed to pick it out and the bigger surface area made light work of it as I got stuck and floundered around in it!

I found a 75m slope and used it to do laps and just ski while Gav and Phil went to scope out steeper ground. I then jumped on the one open Poma for a few laps of the 'piste' (laugh). So my ski season has started!!

Mud fest around Loch Lundie

After another late start we were heading South to Invergarry famed for its location in the Great Glen, and shinty legend James Clark (apparently). The plan was to ride to the scenic Loch Lundie.

Access for all as long as you can get a bike over an 7 foot fence

The ride started off going through a closed campsite (end of season), and after wrestling the bikes over an 7 foot deer fence we were away on muddy track through some beautiful woodland.

Loch Lundie

Heading into sheep country

Abi spotted a fine stag as we continued through more mud and broke out of the forest at the beautiful Loch Lundie. The loch offers fine views, and the track improved as we then transitioned into sheep country. The smell from the sheep was really strong, I'm guessing they were the infamous Cheviot sheep, but not sure.

Nice house, needs a little work

The great glen way

A great spin down alongside the Invervigar Burn spat us back out at the road next to the Bridge of Oich. I didn't have high expectations about the return leg along the great glen way, but this section was brilliant with the days best riding on flowing single track. A great blast on the bike on a grey day in the Highlands.

Wedged!!

Uath Lochans and the Inshriach Forest

After a fun Hogmanay in Inverness, both full of festive 'bugs' it was nice to head down to the Cairngorms and explore more of the forest area and blow away the cobwebs.

Uath Lochans

En route we saw the coast guard rescue helicopter that was involved in the successful rescue of a missing couple of walkers stranded over night in the Cairngorms - see here if interested.

part frozen lochan

After a coffee stop (well we were suffering) we explored some of the vast Inshriach Forest and Insh Marshes. The weather cleared through the day and the mountains of the Cairngorms and Monadhliath looked spectacular covered in a dusting of fresh snow.

Looking to the Monadhliath