After looking at the weather forecast Zack somehow persuaded me that it would be a good idea to get up early on new years day and drive over to the caingorms. So after being careful not to drink too much on Hogmanay we drive over to the Caingorms with 3.5hrs sleep!

When we got to the car park I had a feeling we might be unsuccessful when we had to fully kit ourselves out to protect from the spindrift and wind, and this was at the car park! On the walk up we battled against the wind and the horrible melt-freeze crust on the wind scoured areas and eventually made it to the coire. The view behind us on the walk up was spectacular, snow covered mountains in the sun!

Apparently a team headed up to Mess of Pottage but we couldn’t see them, another team had turned around in front of us due to the wind and we saw a few people on our way back down who thought they were going to get to the coire and turn back. Our conversation to decide if we were going to climb was very brief as we decided we weren’t that masochistic and so we headed back down to the car park. Unfortunately when we got to the car park the forecast lull in the wind seemed to arrive… Should have had that lie in!

Due to the forecast looking more windy for the next few days, we decided to sack it and headed back to Bristol for a few lazy days off work. Hopefully the conditions will be better in Torridon in mid Feb!

Fully kitted out to leave the carpark

Fully kitted out to leave the carpark

Lots of spindrift!

Lots of spindrift!

Lovely view!

Lovely view!

Cold in the coire

Cold in the coire

A rare photo of me

A rare photo of me