A FEW DAYS OF REAL WINTER CONDITIONS

Five Sisters ridge, Kintail

Winter has definitely arrived in The Highlands. The last few days have been constantly below freezing on the Munros, the North West and Cairngorms seeing the best cover of snow. I've had three excellent days out starting on Sunday with Karen who ticked off another two new Munro summits in the Creag Meagaidh area, Carn Liath and Stob Poite Coire Ardair.

Coire Ardair from the summit of Stob Poite Coire Ardair

The ridge from Carn Liath

Sunday was a glorious day to be out. Clear skies were to be found the further west you headed. You didn't need to travel too far from Aviemore to find the best of the weather. So we chose the two summits of Carn Liath and Stob Poite Coire Ardair which are the two outlying Munros off the Creag Meagaidh plateau. These hills give super views into Coire Ardair, the main feature in this area.

Good snow cover

Dusk on the tops

Nice sunset

We mad a late descent off Stob Poite Stob Coire Ardair. We reached the top at 2.45pm only to realise one of us had dropped their mobile phone somewhere! Guess who!  So we retraced our steps, 4 times! Eventually after the third ascent to the top we found it! All good and of course we had a fabulous sunset on our route off to 'The Window'. It was torches out on the descent down into the coire. An excellent covering of snow amongst the boulders which was well trodden so much easier walking than in the summer months. A beautiful star studded evening and a beautiful moon rising at the car park.

Loch Duich

The North West Highlands has been the best place in the UK if you like your mountains to be snow covered and sun kissed over the last few days. So on Monday I headed up to Kintail to get some of it! The area boasts some of the finest ridge walks in the country and spoilt for choice. I arrived late morning at Shiel Bridge under beautiful blue skies and sunshine. With  the shorter days it had to be just a quick romp up to one of the peaks. I chose Sgurr nan Saighead, the most westerly of the Five Sisters of Kintail ridge. A fine viewpoint from it's summit looking out west.

Looking out to the peaks of Knoydart

Sgurr Fhuaran, Ciste Dubh & Glen Shiel

The snowline was around 600m but of course the snow is unconsolidated and hard going once you come off any trodden trails. There has been no melt/freeze cycles taking place since the falls of snow so its quite powder-like at the moment. Over toward Knoydart it looked very wintry with even more snow. I stood on the top for over 30 minutes photographing the sun setting and the light changing. A magical time of day, chilly too.

The distant summits in Glen Affric

The Saddle, Knoydart and Skye

Aonach Meadhoin & Dgur an Fhurail

Tuesday dawned fine and cold again. Today's jaunt was on Sgur an Fhuarail & Aonach Meadhoin, two Munros above the Cluanie Inn. It is not a big day and a good winter choice when the days are shorter. Another wonderful ridge walk. It was slightly milder by late morning with lighter winds and the approaching Atlantic weather front.  Very fine views in the morning. The cloud rolled in from the west during the day.

South Cluanie Ridge

A' Chralaig & Mullach Fraoch-choire

For two days I saw no one on these hills. Brilliant. Some fine mountains and always a pleasure to walk in this area. It felt like it could be any month in winter with the unusually cold conditions plus good snow cover. It's still only October. Will this be another cracking winter? Probably, maybe. Watch and see!

Winter ridges, love 'em

A' Chralaig and Loch Cluanie