Nettle and I have been away for the last couple of days. We headed North on Wednesday morning with a big thaw forecast through the day; freezing levels above the summits and rain from the West. We stopped for a leg stretch and nipped up Duchray Hill between Glen Shee and Glen Isla. There were still snow patches from about 500m up on East facing aspects, but it rained on and off and the snow pack was reducing fast.
Snow was forecast overnight last night on Westerly winds with temperatures dropping and staying cold through the day today, so we chose to head up to The Stuic on Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach. This is a fair walk in, but it has routes that would be facing the wind and have a good chance of refreezing fast and if it hadn’t refrozen we could do the ridge of The Stuic as a scramble.
Our decision payed off and we were able to climb Daybreak Corners, a good short route, and then continue up The Stuic.
It wasn’t a day for hanging around, so we then took in the summit of Carn a Coire Bhoidheach before heading up to Lochnagar and then out to the top of Meall Coire na Saobhaidhe before descending back in to the delightful Ballochbuie Forest.
Lots of wind movement of fresh snow today on strong Westerly winds and windslab was developing on sheltered aspects. Turf was well frozen where exposed to the wind above 800m. Old snow patches were refreezing throughout the day. Lots of ice around on the plateau, but no significant snow cover except in sheltered locations. Fresh snow to road level at the Glenshee ski centre on our drive back down.
