Inversion on Sgor Gaoith with bonus Fata Morgana mirage

[Kenny_G]

This was a magical day, visiting three Tops: Sgoran Dubh Mor, Meall Buidhe and Geal-charn as well as the main summit of Sgor Gaoith.

After several big days in the Cairngorms my knees were complaining that they needed a rest ... but with the forecast for an inversion and good weather only to last a couple more days I coaxed the creaky joints into action with some coffee and ibuprofen and made a super-early start in the dark, headtorch helping, to hopefully see the sunrise on the hill.

Sgor_Gaoith_.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

As the sun rose I stopped to glance behind me, and thought ‘wow, what are those cliffs???’. I love playing ‘name that hill’, especially when on my own, as then I’m always right ;-), but this had me foxed. What are the white cliffs of Dover doing here?!

The views of the unknown mountains (Meggie?! Nevis?! … I was thinking at the time!) disappeared as quickly as they arrived, so I headed upwards, nice views of Braeraich in the clouds…

… and of the rocky east side and summit of Sgor Gaoith

Dropping down in and out of the clouds, a wonderful fog bow kept me company for a while…

… and met another walker on her way up, great to have some company for the first time that day, and to take each others pictures

Only when I got home and googled did I find out that what I’d seen was of course not Dover but a ‘Fata Morgana’ mirage brought on by the inversion … most likely over Ben Alder and Sgor Iotharn … incredible!

[dogplodder]

It does look like the white cliffs of Dover!

[Chris Henshall]

Your photo of the Fata Morgana is fascinating; do you have a higher resolution image of the key section?

[Kenny_G]

Your photo of the Fata Morgana is fascinating; do you have a higher resolution image of the key section?

Thanks Chris, yes it was fantastic to see. I was kicking myself I had left my better camera at home!

I think this one might just be more heavily cropped than the other rather than more resolution…

This one has the full view with more bits you can zoom in on (but no more resolution!)

[Chris Henshall]

That's great; thanks for adding them.
Presumably, if you know the precise direction in which you were pointing the camera, you could work out the likely original source(s) of the images. Any ideas?

[Kenny_G]

Yes, my best educated guess is that the mirage is of/above Ben Alder to the left and Sgur Iutharn to the right… a couple of other non-mirage pics that day have the right shapes in a similar place to be those hills at about the right distance/angle, but I’m only 80% sure of that as Drumochter hills are in between, although they are not as high as Ben Alder.

[Chris Henshall]

That would seem about right and the images to the right in your lower photo are probably Geal Chàrn (above Laggan) and its neighbours?
Whatever, they are fantastic images; I've never seen anything like them myself in the decades I've spent climbing hills!

[Kenny_G]

Yes, that seems possible too. Yes likewise on the decades in hills never seeing anything like this, it's made me even more alive to the magic than inversions can produce!

[Sgurr]

Congratulations on Walk Report of the Month.What super optical effects.

Forget about Munros, Corbetts et al. Someone needs to classify the hills in terms of how many ibuprofen needed. Though it may need to be a spreadsheet, with age along one axis.

[Kenny_G]

Thank you!

After reading a couple of your inspirational walk reports from last year, the age axis on that spreadsheet needs lots of columns… I hope I’m still going as well at 85!