a winter walk on being snowed in

Sun, Dec 20, 2009

I woke up this morning to a fair bit of snow, enough to make my status “snowed in” as the hill out of the village is too steep for the car, so I decided to bimble up Beinn nan Carn and hopefully catch a blizzard or two on the way, as great roving snow showers were scouring the land. It had been a wild day yesterday, with a tiny warm front dumping the majority of the snow, followed by a cold front catching it up, raising the clouds up and banging them against the stratosphere to empty them of their cargo of hail and snow. As the wind increased to force 8 the bins danced a merry jig round the garden to the applause of the slates and the snow on the roof laughed so much it slid off when I lit the fire!

Sunrise over Knoydart and Loch Eishort

The route up Beinn nan Carn was the usual deep heather, this time with deep snow, a rough and tumble of snowed up boulders before popping out on the level summit, one of the best viewpoints on the island. Usually you can see the Cuillin Ridge, Sgurr nan Gillean, Blaven, Clach Glas, a veritable who’s who of jagged mountain peaks but today I arrived in a blizzard and took my customary place at the big cairn, which shelters you no matter where the wind is coming from.

Cumulus Congestus

I lingered for an hour or so, wandering around taking pics and enjoying the wild weather, ensconsed in a Paramo Aspira, sung and warm.

Blaven and Beinn na Caillich from Beinn nan Carn

As another snow shower came in I slithered back down the hill to a brew-up at the house and watched the snow scoot past the windows. The plough came around half one and if it doesn’t snow tonight I might get out to do some more panic buying at the co-op!

You can see all the pics here.