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Another freezing morning, another day at Drumochter. Weather forecast was for a clear day and there had been much talk on forums about temperature inversions and even MWIS hinted at mist in the glens so I was hoping for some spectacular pics.
- Sgairneach Mhor in the background, A' Mharconaich and Geal-charn (cloudy one) on the Western side of the A9
Followed the landrover track then hit the first bit of snow which was easy enough to avoid by walking on the raised embankment all the way up the track. The snow had receded waaay up the hillside compared to my
walk at Drumochter last week so the going was pretty good.
By the time I reached the part marked on the map as a quarry (in reality just a wee depression in the ground) the only cloud in Scotland had shrouded the hill. Nevermind, I thought, by the time I get to the summit I should be looking down on a tasty inversion. Meh. Didn't work out like that.
- The summit of Carn na Caim
- Frosty cairn
One thing I did find was how disorientating the place was in hill fog. Don't get me wrong, there's a fence line that makes for easy enough navigation most of the way to the summit of CnC. It runs out approximately 200 metres from the summit cairn, virtually on the summit plateau but tbh, if I hadn't had my satnav I think I would've struggled a lot more than I did -- I'd probably have been found a week later on Ben MacDui.
Then I had another first -- it was freeeeeezing at the top of CnC and from the waist down I had begun to go numb in places you really don't want to go numb.
Break out the waterproofs as an extra layer against the wind, check. Switch from my woolly bunnet to one that also covers my ears, che... wtf?! My hair was a bit damp under my woolly bunnet from my exertions and by the time I had taken that off and lined up my other one my hair had frozen solid!
Oh well, no point hanging around too long so back off down the fence line. Wee bit down the track and the cloud breaks off Carn na Caim and then settles in the valley below. Typical.
- Carn na Caim
- Fence line down towards (but above) the quarry
Pressed on towards A' Bhuidheanach Bheag.
- The scenery
- Landrover track towards A' Bhuidheanach Bheag
Saw a solitary figure ahead of me (where'd he come from?)
- Solitary figure
- Cairn at height-point 879
While I was having a drink at the cairn at height-point 879, the solitary figure who'd been in front of me reappeared and headed towards where I was. Turned out his satnav was playing up and he wanted to check his bearings with someone else. As we were both walking alone we teamed up and had a great blether together for the rest of the walk.
- Self portrait with the trig point
My wife really liked my picture from last week of me doing a snow angel so she asked me to do another... an inverse one this time (taking the p*** obviously). My new friend was kind enough to oblige.
- Inverse snow angel