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Good weather, good snow and good mates. The perfect Ingredients for a great walk and boy i was not disappointed. Boab(Haggissupper), Gary(Spirittoo), Tom (Never been up a hill for 5 years) and Myself arrived at the Visitor centre around 9:30 and saw the hill was going to be quite busy with the number of cars parked up. Low cloud shrouded the hills except Meall Corranaich who seemed to be shouting "Pick me!"
- Meall Corranaich
We headed up towards Beinn Ghlas and hoped the cloud would clear.
- View to Beinn Ghlas
The cloud flirted with us as we reached the ridge for the top and people around us disappeared (Believe me there were a lot). A couple of Guys passed us by, one skiing and the other had "Big Feet" ski's on with a snowboard strapped to his back. Both were making fast progress up the hill.
- Ghostly skiers
We put our crampons on as the snow was hard packed and we started to stuggle for grip. Once we reached the summit (In cloud) we quickly moved along the ridge and we started to get the views we came for.
- Looking North
The wind had picked up and the chill factor was into "bl**dy freezing" even though it was only minus 4 on the temp gauge. Lunch was at the bottom of the final assent to Lawers and some interesting cloud formations was seen as well as a dog running off with most of my lunch!
- What the ?
The climb to the top was not my finest hour as i struggled to keep up with the others. Don't know if it was the start of the virus that the rest of the family had last week or it was something to do with the visit to the pub last night.
I still enjoyed the steep climb to the summit as a lot of people were going as slow.
- Summit climb to Ben Lawers
AT LAST the top. Shrouded in low cloud but giving glimpses of the surrounding scenary.
- The boys on top
We walked back down and walked the "by-pass" route to Coire Odhar getting some great views as we went.
- Meall Corranaich in all its glory
- Looking South
We had a great laugh all day and even though it was a bit more cloudy than expected it was still a classic