ron-t climbing
20 November 2016 .............. Meall Odhar in the snow
While England and Wales were suffering the wind and rain brought by Storm Angus, Scotland is stuck in a deep freeze - we have had it for several days, and looking at XCWeather, it looks like we are stuck with it for the next week.
I took a trip up to the Calliacher wind farm and Meall Odhar - after my failure to cycle up there last time, I have wanted to do it again by bike, and this time I got there.
However it wasn`t plain sailing - down at the car park there was just a smattering of snow, but the higher I went the thicker it got - up the top there was about 70 - 80 mm of it, which doesn`t sound much, but it had already gone through some thaw / freeze cycles, and it was quite crispy and lumpy, so not very easy to cycle on.
Down at the car park I am guessing it would have been around zero degrees centigrade, but up the top it was well below zero, even the snow on the ground was growing whiskers.
It took me quite a time to get up, and in places I just couldn`t cycle against the gradient and the crispy and lumpy snow, so I had to walk a fair bit of it.
So it was getting close to sunset by the time I got up to the top - actually I didn`t get to the top of Meall Odhar, but I did get up to the start of the wind generators.
There was super visibility in all directions - this is the Lawers group.
Round to the right, and the horseshoe of munros above Glen Lyon - Carn Gorm, Meall Garbh, Carn Mairg, and Meall na Aighean.
Round a bit more, and Schiehallion with its distinctive shape catching the low angle of sun -
Away to the north and the two corbetts Meall Tairneachan and Farragon Hill looking very white -
Time to say goodbye to the sun - with the wisps of cloud still catching the sun -
It is the kind of winter conditions that I haven`t experienced up a hill for a couple of years - the intense, almost brutal, cold, the view, the snow - in a way it was exhilarating, but having experienced it, thanks very much, can we now go back to blue sky and sunshine and a temperature of 25 degrees !
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