Thursday 3 February 2011

The Storm Arrives!!







With yet another windy forecast I decided not to head up onto the tops today. I took a nice stroll through the snowy forests of the Rothiemurcus Estate then up into the start of the Lairig Ghru. This is an amazing geological feature - a deep valley that separates the Cairngorm plateau from Braeriach and Carn Toul. Here I 'rescued' a slightly lost but well equipped Polish chap. I persuaded Vorturyk that this wasn't the day to try and climb Braeriach so he joined me for the rest of the day. With the approaching storm quickly moving up the Lairig Ghru I decided to bail through the Chalamain Gap. This was tricky enough with the wind gusting to 60 mph and the boulder strewn gap partially covered with fresh snow. Once through the wind increased to the point where I could hardly stand and the next couple of miles to get down into the woods was hard going! Then the snow arrived and I was glad not to be up high - hopefully enough will have settled in the woods to allow some x-country skiing tomorrow.

No comments: