A VERY WILD WINTER DAY ON BRAERIACH

Kirsty & Jason still smiling

Good hard snow up the burn lines

Hard work in places

Kirsty & Jason are out with me this weekend on a winter skills combined with a Munro summit or two. Unfortunately its been a very stormy weekend and we put forward yesterday's outing to today as the wind on the summits were around 100mph Saturday. Today faired a wee bit better with just a gentle 50-70 forecasted! We set off from Coylumbridge with a good few cm's of fresh overnight snow lying on the roads. The track into Glen Einich looking beautiful with all the snow hanging on the trees. It began snowing  after 10 minutes from the start, and never stopped all day. We got up to the Northern Corries of Braeriach were it was only gusting 40 with very poor vis. There are three nice burns running down from Coire Lochan. These are holding old hard snow and neve from the start of winter and are great ways up the mountain as well as for practicing some crampon work. It was hard going all day. We arrived at 2.30pm up at the lochan where it was gusting over 50mph and still an hour to the summit. We releucantly saved the summit for another day! The temperatures were rising through the day and by the time we descended back to the Glen Einich track it was raining. What a difference from walking up the track this morning, it was now resembling a burn! A great day all the same, good company and a good taste for the Kirsty & Jason of  what a normal winters day in The Cairngorms can be like!