EASTER BUNNIES

It was another lovely sunny day here in the Highlands, although it was hazy and some high cloud after mid day. Just in time for Easter I saw a mountain hare high up on Ben Lawers but no chocolate eggs. On the way down the South/SE ridge I bumped into Jan who works for the Scottish National Trust, he was out doing some footpath maintanance.

KEEP ON SHINING

It was another beautiful sunny day in The Highlands and warmer than yesterday with only light winds on the tops. I was scrambling about on Creag na Caillichs' Eastern ctags then along the Tarmachans'. The gullies here are good spots for some winter easy lines but there's more turf than rock for summer scrambling, still a quiet way up and graet for plant and flowers. The purple saxifrage around here is beautiful at the moment, in abundance in places. Also just out is wood anemone. Clear visability today, central gully on Ben Lui was quite prominant in views and is still full with snow, maybe I was wrong about winter over? Last chance for winter action maybe...........

WINTER OVER

Well I'll have to admit today with sadness that winter is over! At least here in the Southern Highlands, those looking for winter action will have to go high on The Ben or Cairngorms. Today Peter and I were on a couple of lowely but quiet hills to the South of Loch Voil. We had nice sunny spells and good views over to Stob Binnein. It felt like Spring was finally here when Peter put on his sun hat. On the way down we spotted a pair of golden plovers.

SNOWY,SUNNY,SLIPPY,SLIDEY

After a wet and colder night the hills today had a covering of snow down to 800m. It was a showery morning so I nipped out after mid- day just in time for the sun to come out. The fresh snow became quite wet and added to this the saturated ground it became quite slippy under foot. I went into the Cam Chreag corrie on Tarmachan, as fast has I was going up one of the gullies the snow was rolling off down the hill. The crags higher up had ice on them but this too was melting rapidly. Shame it's not any colder to keep the snow. Interesting weather coming up over Easter period, wet at all levels tommorrow, then snow again to 800m for Friday. Still got chance to roll those Easter eggs down the hill!

SUN, SNOW & SOLITUDE

It was a beautiful sunny day here in The Southern Highlands. The views were very clear in the Westerly airflow, there was a cold and brisk wind on the tops but I was well sheltered in the corrie. I was in the Eastern corrie of Ben Lawers were the largest amount of snow still lye's and will do so right through into May. This is a wonderful area, lots of choices with grade 1 ground lower down leading to the summit of Ben Lawers, giving over 200m of snow. High up there was even some ice about has the freezing level dropped to about 1100m today. After nipping over to An Stuc I descended back to the beautiful and peaceful Lochan nan Cat after seeing the usual holiday trippers on the ridge, one person looked frozen in his short trousers has he ran along the ridges to keep warm! Don't put the axe & crampons away just yet, looks like a last blast of winter next week with snow forecast to 800m. How about rolling your Easter eggs in the snow with Tarmachan Mountaineering this year, we are still running winter skills/walking.

http://www.tarmachan-mountaineering.org.uk/

MOONLIGHT LIGHTING

It was raining on and off much of the day so I had a rather late start ( 4.30pm!) up into Beinn Ghlas's North corrie. The only snow left in the Lawers range is here and a couple of places on Lawers itself. The airflow had changed from last week when we had southerlies all last week. This afternoon the strong winds had swung to the NW and I had a couple of short snow showers. According to forecasts this will be short lived has it's swinging back to S/SW by tomorrow. Lost track of time today has there was a moon out in the clearing skies on the way down. The only scary bit about today was cycling back home beside the motorists on the North Loch Tay road!

BRITISH SUMMER TIME BEGINS? - I DON'T THINK SO

It was a fantastic day today in the Highlands of Scotland. Ian and I went up Beinn Achallader's wonderful NE ridg. It was acold day but the strong N winds eased through the day, we had plenty of sunshine and the views were excellent with superb visability. The snow today was superb and is consolidating with neve in places. A very fine end to the winter season.

SNOWING, WIND, CLOUD - SAME AGAIN

Ian and I had a liesurley start up Stuchd an Lochan today, we set off at 2pm and up the cracking wee North ridge looking for ice but found none as the freezing level was only hovering around 900m today. We timed it perfectley again and got a snow shower and cloud the last 20 mins to the summit. Thre is plenty snow on Eastern corries and slopes. Looks good for tomorrow with much lower freezing levels.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES-PART 2

It was a very wild and snowy day today. We had constant heavy snow showers, brought on Westerly gales coating the mountains in snow down to 600m. Paddy and I headed into the Eastern corrie of Tarmachan today for some navigation and avalanche assessment/awareness. Windslab was forming rapidly in the gullies on Eastern aspects as visability decreased quickly in the showers. Great conditions for navigation today. The Purple Saxifrage is now out in full bloom, beautiful, hardy wee flowers seen all over the Lawers range from March-April. More now forecast in the coming days, take care out there.The avalanche Info Service continues into Apil. http://www.sais.gov.uk/ . This time last week it was a heatwave, the wonders of a Scottish winter.

THE RETURN OF THE SUN

It was a very pleasent morning today, the forecast was not quite accurate again. The sun shone through out the morning and it was colder with freezing levels about 900m. Paddy was out with me today on a winter ML refresher course. We covered sercurity on steep ground using rock and snow belays as we made our way up onto Meall Corranaich from the Coire Odhar bealach. There was cloud and light drizzle in the afternoon and the freezing level went above the summits. Still plenty of good snow cover in Northern and Eastern corries and significant snowfall forecast at the end of the week.

THIN WHITE LINE

It was another very wintery day with snow falling much of the time. Toward the afternoon the temps rose and the snow turned to rain. Ian and I went up a lovely gully route on Creise in Glencoe, the snow was wonderful, neve in places. Another wee gem of a place with several grade 1 lines and quiet. Our route followed a watercourse and on through some lovely crags. The wind picked up in the afternoon as we made our way around to Meall a' Bhuirdh and down through the deserted Glen Coe ski area.