FINAL WINTER COURSE THIS SEASON

 

Neil enjoying the Alpine conditions

Mid April and that time of year when, sadly, I concede and admit that the winter season is over for anther year. I ran my final winter skills course last Friday and the day before I was running my last scheduled winter mountain hare photography workshop. 

Martina and Lars in some less than pleasant weather on Thursday

Thursday 13th April.

A return to some wintry conditions today.

Lars & Martina were out with me to photograph the beautiful Mountain Hares today. Lars came out with me around this time last year. It was a tad more Spring like 12 months ago. We had some poor visibility and a few showers of snow above 700m in the morning. The weather improved vastly by early afternoon and some late, bright spells.

The high Cairngorms looking like they have a nice late winter dusting.

This was my last scheduled winter mountain hare photography workshop this season. Of course the hares are wonderful every day, 365 days per year.

I'll be posting my annual end of winter mountain hare review and photos soon.

A great day out and lovely to see fun, return clients again.

Fiacaill Coire Sneachda

Neil enjoying some great last of the winter conditions

Friday 14th April.

Neil was out with me on a 1 day bespoke winter course in the Cairngorms. Neil is climbing Mont Blanc this summer so he was looking for some essential winter skills in preparation for his Alpine adventure. Our Scottish hills are a good deal lower in altitude than The Alps. We don't have glaciers either but all the technical skills required using boot, axe and crampons, moving on steep terrain and good all round mountain sense are exactly the same techniques required for big mountains in the greater ranges.

We had a fantastic day, moving on various slopes and different types of snow. Some old, hard snow mixed with fresh snow from the last couple of days made ideal conditions to hone some essential skills.

Beautiful sunshine, a few snow showers and a strengthening wind with high windchill made some great weather conditions.

We spotted a lovely pair of Ptarmigan and a wonderful Mountain Hare in the coire this morning.

A top day with great company. Looking forward to hearing from Neil after he's bagged Mont Blanc. Usually a Scottish winter day is far tougher than a day up the highest peak in Western Europe

This was, sadly, my final winter course this season. Its been another brilliant winter season. A usual mix of weather and snow. Always with wonderful groups of people.

Thank you to everyone who booked with Tarmachan Mountaineering this season. The finest season is almost over, but its not over till the fat snowman sings.

There's still winter - if you want it .

Alladin's Couloir

Enjoying the views

Saturday 15th April

Another fine day in the Cairngorms.

Beautiful winter conditions in the Cairngorms. Bright sun, cold and snow down to 900m.

Some interesting sights, clothing and footwear on the hills today.

Coire an t-sneachda

Sunday 16th April

Another pleasant day in Strathspey and the Cairngorms. By the afternoon it had warmed up nicely down at lower altitudes.

The Mountain Hares were twitchy today, although there are two types of hares. Runner and Stayers. The Runners you will never get close up and personal with them. The wonders of nature, who knows why some will run from over 100m away, whilst others will sit close by and just think of you as part of the landscape.

Northern corries of Braeriach

Ben Macdui & Lairg Ghru

Spring seems to be in the air. The Wheatears have just arrived in the area I frequent and down at lower levels the beautiful flowers of the Crowberry have literally just come into flower (they weren't in flower last Thursday). The bees were loving the nectar!

Busy bee on the Cowberry flowers

Pansey's

Daffodils always late to flower in the north

WINTER RETURNS

 

Tuesday 11th April.

A beautiful day on Tuesday. Overnight and into Wednesday it has been much colder with heavy snowfall and high winds on the Cairngorms. Winter is not over.

Another five hours or more spent in the company of this amazing mountain hare on Tuesday. Mo Charaid and I lazed around on the hillside in sunshine today. Peaceful and relaxing and only each others company. I'm certain he was mimicking me when laid down with the camera getting some low angled shots. It was wonderful to see him laze about, yawn (or as I love to think, laughing), doze off, scratch, refection (google it), and generally just mooching about in the beautiful sunlight. A brilliant insight into his daily living high up in the hills.

He's still predominantly in his winter pelage but very slowly changing. Snowing on the hills today so he'll be well camouflaged. His body knows when winter is truly over, around the end of April, of course.

SNOW AT EASTER

 

Still dressed for winter

I ran my penultimate (scheduled) winter skills course on Easter Sunday. Friends dave & Humza have been busy with work all winter but they finally got time to book onto a late winter course with me.

Dave & Humza, axe and crampons essential just now

Dave & Humza were out with Tarmachan Mountaineering for a 1 day winter skills in the Cairngorms. It was a bit breezy today with 40-60mph SE winds which always provide almost the same speeds down to lower levels. We battled through the headwinds to get into the coire. On the way we bumped into and chatted to Cathy ( one of the SAIS avalanche assessors), we saw hardly any other folk.

Humza enjoying the limited sun

Thankfully it was almost calm in the coire. The limited snow has been freezing up nicely overnight the last week or so. So if you're venturing out in the Cairngorms you'll definitely need crampons.

Plenty of useful snow to cover plenty of essential skills. We also discussed some avalanche awareness and assessment as part of your plans heading out in winter.

Windy high up, we were well sheltered in this location

We even managed some Mountain Hare Photography. The lads work in the Photography business and brought along decent enough telephoto lenses to capture some nice shots of a lovely we hare who sits in a specific place in the coire.

Good banter and fun with two keen guys travelling all the way up from Glasgow for the day.

My last SCHEDULED winter course this season is next Friday. If you want to make the last of the snow it's looking hopeful, we are back to more low temperatures and a top up of snowfall into next week.

Dave demonstrating the self belay

In the Cairngorms we regularly have plenty of snow right through most of April of course. By this time in April  everyone seems to be in their 'summer mode', despite the hills being cold, wintry and full of big areas of snow. I've one more course next weekend. It's never too late to get some winter fun, now's your chance. Looking quite cold and some heavy snowfall on Wednesday. 

Just catching up on my blog which I've been neglecting with plenty of days out and about recently Here's a few images from the last week or so.

Deer starting to moult

Pink footed Geese

Mo Charaid, enjoying some greenery and sunshine

Northern Corries of Braeriach

Red Grouse

Camouflage amongst the lichen for this wee guy

Some mountain hares are well into their Spring coats

....but Mo Charaid is still in his winter pelage

Atmospheric clouds

Peregrine high above the Cairngorms 

Reindeer enjoying the sunshine

Female Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia)

Buzzard

Loch Maree Islands from the summit of Slioch

Mountain Hare high in the Cairngorms

Mountain Hare at 270m, the lowest altitude hare I have photographed 

Osprey are back