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My 1st Munro of the year which turned out to be quite the adventure. My girlfriend and I attempted it last weekend but the weather beat us at about 950M and I was determined to give it another go this weekend as for once the forecast was nice to us that can't get away for midweek jaunt at short notice.
I left Stonehaven around 7 and was at the Braes Of Foss carpark and away about 9, 1st thing I noticed was that there had been quiet a substantial snowfall during the week.
I set off up the track "trying to follow the path, but there was a few times I meandered off course and ended up knee deep in snow, time to put the gaiters on, except I'd left them in the car as I found out on my return
Nothing for it, onwards and upwards, I spent most the time on the path up to the boulder field debating if it was a good idea, deep drifts, wind howling and bloody cold. By the time I'd huffed and puffed (walking through snow takes a lot out of you) I hit the cairn at the start of the boulder field, too my horror I saw a big, black, manky cloud appearing round the corner, at this point the wind really whipped up, I stood with my back to it, again debating, this time my sanity, as I donned my £5 windstopper balaclava and headed up the boulder field, thankfully there was some serious blue sky heading my direction, unfortunately, it didn't stop the wind.
This where it got really interesting, away from the boulders there was some serious waist deep drifts, which when you're 6'2 is a bit alarming, especially when you put your arms out to stop yourself falling and you just go straight through. I kept to the boulders as much as possible and eventually after a lot of shouting and swearing I was a the final pull up to the summit. The approach was pretty much knee deep snow the entire way up but eventually I was up and got some cracking views as a reward.
The descent was pretty much the same as the ascent.
Some pictures of the day.
DSCF0297 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0298 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0299 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0300 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0301 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0302 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0303 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0304 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0305 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0306 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0307 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0308 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0309 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0310 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0311 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0312 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0313 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
DSCF0314 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr
All important selfie as seems the norm nowadays
DSCF0315 by
GaryE1872, on Flickr