An Socach - An Unexpected Gem in Glen Shee

[jupe1407]

Superb photos JP......as others have rightly said.

I need to return to this hill, as the day I did it a few winters back I ended up clagged in for most of it, so missed any views.

It's also the site of my only hill walking injury to date......a eventual lost fingernail occasioned by a slip on some ice on the plateau and punching a rock as I fell "Ouch", I said. So I need to be putting that right somehow.

Thanks Pete.

It is indeed a fine hill in winter. Luckily i escaped with only a cold a**e after the walk back down-wind from the summit cairn, then my bumslides down the icy snow further down. They certainly wouldn't be winning any beauty contests.

I'm sure you may have also used a different four-lettered word!

[Graeme D]

Micro spikes are definitely a lot easier to get on and off than crampons and a good deal cheaper to boot (see what I did there! ) but they don't offer quite the same level of security on steep ground. I was carrying both the other day coming off Cairn Bannoch when I felt I needed something under my boots. I went with the spikes for ease of fitting and the fact that it looked like only a relatively short section of descent where I would need them, but I could tell that they were still not really giving me the security I needed on certain particularly steep icy sections. Had it been a lengthy descent I think I'd have been stopping again and swapping them for the bad boys!

[Mountainlove]

If I only could motive myself to get up that early!! That first picture with the starts is amazing!!
Well done for getting out so early and it certainly looked like an amazing day out!

[dogplodder]

Did this one before I carried a camera so nice to see the views we must have got that day. I remember a pair of friendly white horses near the start of the walk which were just begging for their photo to be taken!

[jupe1407]

If I only could motive myself to get up that early!! That first picture with the starts is amazing!!
Well done for getting out so early and it certainly looked like an amazing day out!

Thanks Maja. It was a fine day, especially once the sun came up.

Did this one before I carried a camera so nice to see the views we must have got that day. I remember a pair of friendly white horses near the start of the walk which were just begging for their photo to be taken!

There are still a few horses around the place. I saw them on the way in, on a field on the left before the Cottage. Also spent a fair part of the track dodging "horse evidence"