Jaxter the red-nosed reindeer

[Jaxter]

It was the beginning of the Christmas road trip – we’d been in Inverness for the weekend for Malky’s birthday and were on our way south for Christmas. We thought we’d have a wee hill on the way down above Newtonmore but we could see that the weather looked much better in the Cairngorms…a spur of the moment decision had us heading for Meall a’ Buachaille but then we saw there was still snow up high so carried on up to the ski centre car park – a quick circuit of the northern corries and a chance to break in the winter boots


We took the track to start with as it was a quick and easy was onto the ridge – the snow was hard and icy and we had to jump out the way of a snowmobile
Loch Morlich

We continued up the track and as we gained height we could start to see snowy peaks in the distance


Once we were on the ridge we could see the Fiacaill ridge – definitely not one for today but it looked incredible


Fannaichs

Ben Wyvis

Ben More Assynt

Ben Klibreck

Morven

The hills above the Cluanie

Not sure what these ones are because Malky’s still at work




Fiacaill

This was beginning to feel like proper winter
Looking up the ridge

Idiot

Wheeeee

The ground here was ok, the snow was hard but with the hard winter boots it was easy enough to get plenty of purchase. But I had new crampons to play with so I decided to show off by putting them on super quick. Clip-on crampons are incredible


We reached the top of the ridge and there was a cairn to climb on
Malky mounts the cairn

Although there was a bit of cloud around we could still see the impressive corries and some proper winter conditions
Looking around the top of the corries

Cairn & Loch morlich

Stacan Dubh

Loch Etchachan

We started to climb up towards Stob Coire an t-Sneachda

I was loving the crunch of the hard snow under my crampons as we walked along Snowy conditions

Cool cliffs

Someone wanted the quick way up!
Ummm....no thanks!

As we were heading up we met quite a few folks coming down – they looked like they’d been on some sort of course – would definitely have been a good day for it!
Looking back

Summit of Stob Coire an t-Sneachda

Sun almost breaking through

Looking down the corrie to Loch Morlich

It was pretty chilly so we carried on walking – looking back to the cliffs was really cool. Everything looks so epic in the snow
More awesome cliffs

Walkers coming back from Macdui

Looking back along the cliffs

As we started to climb up Cairn Lochan we could see down to more awesome gullies and cliffs
Oooft!

We reached the top of Cairn Lochan – it was a great feeling of proper winter It was also freezing so we didn’t hang around too long. There was time for a bit of fooling around though
Jaxter the red nosed reindeer

Heading off we headed along the top of the corrie. Malky wanted to avoid putting his crampons on so we tried to stay left on the less steep ground
Looking back

Then we got bored and he went for it
Malky trying to put his crampons on, 2nd attempt

Come on Malky!

Looking down to the Lurcher Crag

We took a quick diversion over to the Lairig Ghru – definitely worth it
Incredible Lairig Ghru

The top of the Lurcher Crag with a wee bit of sun – incredible
The Lurcher Crag

Looking back to the corries

The snow was really soft here so we decided to lose the crampons. Walking felt really funny without them on

the Fiacaill ridge and Cairn Gorm

Sun hitting the snow

We hit the path – there were some bit patches of snow and lower down a lot of ice but with care we were able to pass
Looking back up

Looking back the ridge was clear of course

Bit of fluff on Meall a' Buachaille

Icy path

My feet were really sore by this point, so the path stretching out ahead of me made me feel really great…
A long road for sore feet

There were a couple of icy river crossings but we managed to cross unscathed. Looking back we were definitely chuffed we’d come up here
Looking back

As we approached the ski lifts we were suddenly surrounded by lots of people sledging and trying to find enough snow to play with. A few snowballs may have been thrown….

We were definitely relieved to be back at the car – I love my new boots but I was very glad to take them off It was time to head back to Glasgow and then on our Christmas road trip
Santa driving his sleigh

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