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A decent fall of snow and a reasonable forecast for Saturday, so I headed to Beinn an Lochain, one of my favourite hills, as it's a short journey for me and a nice half day out. Just right for those dark mornings when it's a struggle to get out of bed
Lovely skies on the way there, but the clag was sitting on all the Arrochar and Rest and be Thankful hills. Hopeful that the blue sky would magically appear on the summit by the time I got there, I set off.
Not too cold and the steepness of the walk means you only get cold when any wind catches you on the exposed sections. The path was still visible early on - just - but some other walkers, who were up earlier than me, had kindly made some good tracks for my short legs. Thanks gents!
Plenty of photo opportunities early on - The Cobbler under the snow filled clouds.
All the Arrochar hills had clag today apart from The Brack - it managed to escape the 'lou'ring sky'
Looking the other way, down Glen KInglas, there were good views to the Tyndrum hills beyond. Looks like they were getting a bit more sun
The monochrome landscape allowed for some good icicle shots
Great to see some snow, but it's a b***er when it gets in your way and you have to do a small detour
The clag higher up meant concentrating on some of the frozen rock formations instead of grand, distant views of surrounding peaks
because there certainly wasn't much to see at the summit!
Crampons went on, as many of the steeper sections were icy, and heading back down, Glen Kinglas had caught some of the low cloud
but there was a nice little glimpse of Loch Fyne out to the west
The clearest Beinn Luibhean had been all day
Almost back down to the A83 and the car, and a couple of buzzards were wheeling round. One stopped long enough on a rock
A last look back at a great little hill - or what was still visible of it!
It looked much clearer from Beinn Luibhean on New Year's Day though