free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
I'm posting this up really for my own benefit, as I can use it as an
aide memoir in future. However, if I'm going to post it up then I ought to put a few bits and pieces with it...
For me, one of the joys of walking in the Scottish hills in late summer is the little pockets and patches of snow that can be encountered. Currently, the amount of hills in Scotland where snow is still present can be counted on a couple of hands. One such patch, on Aisre Cham on Geal-charn, was my intended target for the day.
This patch, the last in Scotland to persist to winter outwith the Cairngorms or Nevis range (in 2000), had looked pretty big in photographs, and I wanted to visit it before it went by way of the Dodo. I didn't really have any inention of going any farther than the summit of Geal-charn, but that changed...
With trusty bike under my bum I set off from Dalwhinnie at 7.15am. Locked up the bike at 8.15am at Culra and was on the summit of Carn Dearg by 9.15am. I realised that I had been far too generous with my timings, and that the snow was likely to be visited before 10.30! I had allowed extra time due to a night out in Stirling with friends, but I'd be back down much too early.
Anyway, the snow was visited, photographed and
measured for historical posterity.
Aisre Cham snow-patch, 18th August 2012For those who are interested there are some more snaps
here.
I decided that time was with me and that I would take in another few hills whilst I was there, so I did the rest of the ridge walk to Beinn Eibhinn. This proved straightforward, and time still was with me. It was still only about 12.30pm, so "what the heck". Ben Alder it was! Dropped down to the Uisge Labhair and then back up onto Ben Alder before having a big lunch and admiring the scenery. At this point it was 50-50 for time, so I decided to exit the summit via a route which looked do-able on the map. Hmmm... this proved to be interesting to say the least. The exit gully (
here) was very steep indeed, and called for some slow and deliberate movements. Short cuts can make for long delays, but this one proved very short. Anyway, back at the bike and off to Dalwhinne. 4.30pm at the car, and a cracking day to boot.