Snow Dance
Winter Walking in the Monadhliath Mountains
9th-11th November 2007

The dancers: Andy, 10K, Wayne and myself.
The plot:  Munro baggin'
Accomodation:  The SMC's Raeburn Hut nr. Dalwhinnie

After a long drive North on Thursday evening, the weather put paid to making it North of the Great Glen, we arrived at the Raeburn Hut.

Friday:



A bit of mood lighting for our first dance, the first storm passes over on route to Carn Sgulain. Brrr!!.......... I felt the cold that day!


The strong North wind never stopped blowing but the blue sky was a welcome break between storms and gave us a clear window to make the summit of   A'Chailleach



Time lapse! ..........Yes we were dancing that slow!


10K, Andy and I, on the summit of  A'Chailleach

We finished the day with a trip to the Braeriach in Newtonmore to sample some of their finest pop, to eat all their food and salsa with the locals.

Saturday:
Wayne on Carn a'Chlamain
 10K on Carn a'Chalamain flashing his dancing shoes
 Andy near the end of Glen Tilt

We had a late start, to allow the rain and the tail end of Thursday/Fridays storm to pass. A weather window was forecast for the afternoon so we all headed down to Blair Atholl, jumped on bikes and rode down Glen Tilt, 10K and Wayne stopped at the Forest lodge and headed up Carn a'Chlamain. Andy and I boogied further down the Glen to see what we could see. We wondered if it was possible to bike all the way to Braemar. An adventure for another weekend!

Sunday:

For our last tango we headed up Meall Chuaich, one of the Drumochter Hills, the weather was much improved from Saturday but very very cold.
The Raeburn huts ballroom and NO I am not doffin' my cap to Andy!!
 Meall Chuaich
 10K, Wayne and Andy at the summit Carn of Meall Chuaich


Lucky? Yes! With the forecast so bad we were fortunate to dodge the worse of the weather, nailing a great weekend.

Thanks guys,

Simon

PS.

And jus' so y'all know (if you didn't) the SMC Raeburn Hut is named after Harold Raeburn one of the early Gods and a father of UK mountaineering.
You can read some of Harold's reports from 109 years ago:


A November evening on Lochnagar

The Observatory Ridge, Ben Nevis


and thanks also to Tenk for his SMC membership getting us into this excellent hut at cheap price.
Andrew