WEST WEATHER

Coire an Lochan and the Great Slab

Looking down into Coire an lochan from the plateau

Not a great day for views

The mountain weather forecast was for 'one or two showers mainly in the afternoon'. Reality was the showers were pretty much constant light rain all morning and into the early afternoon! Nevertheless it was good to get out for a couple of hours. Initial plan was up the excellent wee scramble on the Fiacaill Ridge onto the Cairngorm Plateau but with 40-50mph NW and almost sleet just at the narrow scrambly section it wasn't very pleasant so I headed down and into the sheltered Coire an Lochan. I was actually thinking of ski goggles at one point! The cloud broke up a bit so I headed back up and around to Cairn Lochan but the rain and cloud descended again. Not a great day for photos. Typically the sun was out as I headed back down the road. Worth a note here to say that there is an excellent local bus service from Aviemore to the Coire Cas car park which runs around every hour, starting early mornings too and year round and for £3.60 day return it's great value.