WINTER HAS ARRIVED, SNOWING IN THE CAIRNGORMS

Ice and snow on the Fiacaill Ridge

Snowing steadily around late morning

Plenty of rime ice

First of many Fiacaill Ridge traverses this season!

First rimed up Gary this season

The ptarmigan don't want to waste energy in these conditions

Fingers Ridge

Frozen turf and rime

For me the winter season really starts in November. We have seen a couple of  short snowy days in October but it is usually too mild for it to hang around. Now we are into November and the last few days it has been much cooler and the weekend looks very cold with winds swinging around to a northerly direction which of course means COLD! Today I had a great we blast along the Fiacaill Coire an t-sneachda (Fiacaill Ridge). The snow line was at around 1000m this morning. The clear skies early on were soon replaced with a layer of low cloud and by late morning the snow started falling at a steady rate. The ridge had some nice rime ice, frozen turf and a few cm's of snow. Not much in the way of views but just great to be out in it. The first of many Fiacaill ridge traverses for me this winter season, always a great day out and good skills training for my groups. It was poor visibility on the plateau and deserted, I saw no one all day. By the time I got back to the Cairngorm Mountain car park it was snowing steadily at that level and lower. This is only a taster, forecast is for constant snow right through the coming weekend. Great news as I am running a preparation weekend for our up coming Patagonian Icecap Expedition which I am guiding on with Richard from Spanish Highs. Not long till we set off on that. In the meanwhile I think the Highlands is going to be wintry for a few days still. A great start to the winter season. My Winter Courses weekends are filling fast folks! It's going to be a good winter (I hope).