Quieter day today.....

although the weather is not as bad as was forecast - which was for gusts of 110 mph and lots of snow. The latter fact is a disappointment - there seems to be very little snow on the Glenshiel hills at all -  and I doubt its falling as snow on the tops as it does not seem cold enough.

The Glenshiel hills? That is because Claire and I are in Scotland for a few days. We left after work on Boxing Day and drove to Tyndrum - where we'd got a good deal at the lodge. Despite the last part of the journey being through driving rain we made pretty good time and had a meal; a couple of beers and a good sleep.

Waking to a cold(er) and frosty morning we now reaped the benefit of leaving the night before. We elected to climb Meall a' Bhuiridh, the northernmost of the Black Mount hills. It also has the benefit (or not) of being the hill used by the Glencoe Ski centre. This means that it is defaced by ski paraphenalia,  but does have a start at over 300m. For unfit types like us, on the first day of our holiday, it was a good choice - it also enabled us to get down early as we had a two hour drive to Glenshiel.

The first part of the ascent is not the greatest as it does follow the ski tow lines pretty much. After about 300m of height gain the path goes right towards pt 749m from which a ridge leads up to the summit. Probably because there were no skiers (and hardly any snow), it actually felt quite quiet.

The view from the top was impressive - the Ben was clear and most of the hills of Lochaber were also. The Easians looked especially good.

Descent was via the same way - with the clouds coming down over the summits and promising snow (which never came); or at least it was until we got down to the half-way point - at which we point we eschewed the path and followed the bike track down. This must be the most difficult; dangerous and badly-designed bike track I have ever seen....it wants to be a high-end downhill course but is SO badly designed it's untrue....

some photo's here:  https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/MeallABhuidridh