CLOUDSCAPES & HEAT

Cairn Lochan in a wonderful cloudscape

The temperatures took another leap today with an afternoon reading of 24 C in Aviemore. We made an early start to get the best of the weather and not too hot a day. It's also the best time to get out anyway, for wildlife. We set off from a cloud engulfed Coire Cas carpark at 8am, even so it was still just T shirt conditions at this time in the morning.

Cloud burning off quickly in Coire an Lochain

No wind at Coire an Lochain

Cliffs and cloud on the crags

We walked into Coire an Lochain. Dead calm conditions and the skies were now clearing with beautiful sunshine in the coire. A certain someone couldn't resist a wee dip in the chilly water. A refreshing start to the day. We headed up onto the plateau and to Cairn Lochan. The only sound the calling of a couple of Snow Bunting. Wonderul atmospheric cloud conditions as we reached the summit with the crags holding onto some cloud, away from the cliff edge it was completely clear skies. Could have sat and watched this for hours.

Cairn Lochan

Snow Bunting on the cliffs

Male Snow Bunting

Fabulous

For lunch we headed across the plateau and to the finest view point in the entire Cairngorms. Sat and lazed around for 30 minutes, as you do on these beautiful hot, windless days in the mountains.

The finest view in The Cairngorms

Shelterstone Crag from Hell's Lum

Loch A'an and Shelterstone

The beautiful beaches of A'an

This year the lingering snow patches are holding on nicely. For those interested in such things. Most years there are two patches of snow that usually survive right through to the following winter. They are on Ben Nevis and Braeriach. But the last two years these have melted away completely. I wonder if we will have these stick around this year? One area that holds onto snow well into summer and a good indicator is the snow in the Feithe Buidhe slabs. When these stay around till July they sometimes form wonderful 'snow tunnels' This is when the watr trickles down the slabs of rock underneath the snowpack and creates these brilliant snow caves, which you can sometimes walk into if the snow cover has been deep enough that particular winter.

Feithe Buidhe and the deep snowpack

Feithe Buidhe slabs

A wonderful place to explore

We teared ourselves away and headed back to civilisation. Up on the plateau it was lovely to find two male Ptarmigan high up on the rocks who were just lazing about and didn't seem in the mood to fly off anywhere soon. Always nice to get your wildlife to stay around for any length of time. Of course you need to be quiet, patient and move slowly.

Ptarmigan walking

Ptarmigan curious

Ptarmigan chatter

Ptarmigan at rest, but still got his eye on you

Our day out was timesd to perfection. The cloud building up and becoming hazy by the time we headed down Lurchers. Some nice cloudscapes to keep us company.

Nice cloud formations over the Lairig Ghru

Braeriach and Cairn Toul

A lovely view to end the day

Interesting to see the ski road up to Coire Cas carpark has now been open for over a week. As mentioned on a earlier post, the carparks at Coire Cas and Coire Ciste are blocked off. The plan is to put unmanned automated barrier in place and compulsory parking fees at the carparks. That's all fine. But I can't understand the logic of actually closing off the carparks until these are in place? Anyone with the answer please feel free to enlighten me. Just an observation but I counted 33 cars parked up along the roadside before the blocked off carpark. Recipe for traffic problems and accidents?

Meanwhile, on Loch Morlich beach