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| Northern Corries above Badaguish, 28 December |
After a very windy Christmas Day the weather has calmed down considerably. A very pleasant 3 days of sunshine, light winds and cold temperatures. Little in the way of fresh snow but what we do have is fine for honing winter essential walking skills. If you're into skiing or climbing then you'll just need to do something else. Plenty of snow to lower levels for the adorable Mountain Hares. Interestingly the snow on lower hills hasn't been scoured or blown away so some lovely winter wonderland below 900m.
SUNDAY 26 DECEMBER
A day up on the Monadhliath photographing the hares. The snowline is down to around 500m.
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| Morning sun breaking through |
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| Clouds over the Cairngorms |
It wasn't until late in the afternoon that I got to spend a good spell with 2 individual hares close by. The light was much better in the afternoon when breaks in the cloud appeared. Meanwhile the high Cairngorms were mostly underthick cloud and still very windy. It's amazing the difference in weather within just a few miles and lower elevations and of course no huge sprawling plateaux which is why the Cairngorms receives the highest windspeds in the UK.
TUESDAY 27 DECEMBER
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| Beautiful cloudscapes over tge Cairngorms |
Another beautiful day in the Monadhliath. There was more promise of sunshine today. The morning in particular was beautiful. Around mid day some spectacular drifting of clouds across the main Cairngorm plateau.
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| Wind sculptured snow, Sastrugi |
I spent a wonderful hour or so with one individual hare. He hardly moved from his spot. Just the odd twitch of his nose. You could wait hours sometimes for some movement, scratching or yawning. This guy didn't budge.
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| King of his wee castle |
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| Sunshine |
During my hour of lying in the snow there was the coming and going of light cloud/mist drifting across us. Absolutely wonderful. I eventually left him in peace.
By mid afternoon the cloud that was drifting across the higher mountains moved across the Strath and we got thicker cloudcover making photography very dull.
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| Drifting clouds |
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| Atmospheric |
A final hour of photography with another hare who sat and stared as the cloud once again came and went.
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| A dull and cloudy spell |
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| In the shadows |
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| Mountain Hare through a veil of cloud |
TUESDAY 28 DECEMBER
Today was forecasted to be overcast and dull. Sometimes they get it completely wrong. Aviemore, Glenmore and the high Cairngorms basked in wall to Wass sun and virtually blue skies all day!
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| Northern Corries |
We had a shorter, low level meander through the Glenmore Forest Park. You get some terrific views at breaks in the Scots Pines above Badaguish. Despite all the recent high ends and thaw conditions, the high Cairngorms still has plenty of snow cover to learn essential winter walking skills.
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| Frosted vegetation in the glens |
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| Tree frost |
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| Coire an t-sneachda |
It was a healthy minus 4 centigrade in Aviemore, warmer in the sunshine and no breeze. A very pleasant morning.
Let's see what's left after Wednesday's warm and wet spell.
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