STUCHD AN LOCHAIN

John & I were on Stuchd an Lochain today. We went up the attractive North ridge from Loch an Daimh. It was a cold day with strong NW winds and some squally snow showers. There is a light covering of snow above 800m and the high summits are looking good. With constant fronts coming over the Highlands the next few days, bringing snow, it should look quite wintery.

WINTER!

Beautiful winter day today. Kate & I had a dawn start up Meall Corranaich from the Ben Lawers Centre. We took a nice line up a shallow gully, a favourite route of mine. There was an excellent covering of snow from 800m, getting better all the way to the summit. There were quite a few deep spots and some icy, frozen snow around the summit slopes, wonderful!

MEALL NAN TARMACHAN

It was a grey day on the Tarmachans today. A cold, light easterly wind with soft snow lying above 900m. There was only a glimpse of The Lawers group inbetween low cloud and a few wet snow showers.

Looks like staying unsettled but cold with snow showers right through till next week as a northerly airflow is forcast, winter as maybe arrived?

BEN LAWERS

It was a beautiful morning today with a temperature inversion on Loch Tay. This is when the cloud sinks low into the glen with clear skies above. I was on Ben Lawers & Ben Ghlas, going up the SSE ridge of Lawers. There was snow and ice on the East and North aspects, ground frozen too so quite wintery conditions on the high tops, be careful out there!

SETTLED WEATHER & SNOW ON THE HILL

It's been lovely settled weather the last couple of days with some beautiful Autumn sunshine. There was a dusting of snow and even ice on Ben Ledi yesterday as we had a short day out on the hills. Ben Lawers and Ben More above Crianlarich looked wintery above 1000m this morning.

Winter on it's way!

SIERRA NEVADA, SPAIN

I have just returned from a 2 week trip to the mountains of Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain. This is a wonderful area for walking, quiet, unspoilt and beautiful whitewashed villages for accomodation during a stay. The weather was superb, mostly blue skies and 25 degrees centegrade at sealevel, very pleasent on the summits which reach to 3480 metres.

Tarmachan Mountaineering will be running a 1 week trip there in June 2008. Check the webpage soon for details!