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| Cairngorm plateau today |
The warm weather we've been treated to over the last few days has gradually depleted the snowpack in the Cairngorms. Today the thaw came to an abrupt end with much colder temperatures, thankfully. There is still some very big areas of snow above 1000m on the Cairngorm plateau and especially out towards Ben Macdui. Any other remaining snow is high up in the corries, above 900m. What does remain is solid and frozen.
FRIDAY 14 JANUARY
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| Brilliant |
A Ptarmigan Photography Workshop today. Great conditions for it with lovely sunshine by midday and hardly any wind. Some wonderful Ptarmigan moments for my client who was very happy. I'll post some of my Ptarmigan images later. A beautiful end to the day with fab skyscapes.
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| Blue skies and snowfields |
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| East Side of Cairn Gorm |
In the morning we spent around 1 hour with this male ptarmigan.
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| A quick ruffle of the feathers |
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| Rock Ptarmigan |
If you look closely at the next image you will see his feathery eyelids.
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| White, feathery eyelids |
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| Quiet |
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| Beautiful late afternoon |
We had superb light by mid afternoon. Enough time to capture this hen ptarmigan in beautiful light on the snow.
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| Cramponing on the ice |
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| What a friendly face! |
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| great light |
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| Cairngorm plateau |
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| Fab skies at 4pm |
The day was finished nicely with stunning skies.
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| Beautiful light |
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| Full moon? |
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| Looking magical |
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| A temperature inversion thrown in |
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| The Golden hour and beyond |
SATURDAY 15 JANUARY
Return client, Zuzana and her friend Jonathan are out with me for 2 days of winter walking and a recap on essential skills. We made the most of the nice day by linking all the remaining snow patches to take us on a lovely journey to Ben Macdui.
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| Coire an Lochain |
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| Crampons on |
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| Taking in the views |
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| Hard snow |
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| Poor visibility |
It was a fine, sunny and cold morning. All the snow is now well bonded and completely frozen. At 900m we had the crampons on and they stayed on all the way across the plateau as we weaved our way across the high plateau, taking a scenic and quiet route to the second highest point in the UK.
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| Ben Macdui |
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| Near white out |
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| Winter fun |
We did some navigation above 1100m where the snow cover is excellent. In some areas it was white out for short periods. Great to fine tune your navigation skills.
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| No views from the summit area today |
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| Late afternoon the clouds lifted again. |
For much of the afternoon we were in cloud. It wasn't until dusk that the clouds lifted above 1000m and we had some views again.
Some light snow forecast tomorrow afternoon and staying below freezing on the tops.
Well, it's a start to another recovery period.
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