Winter day out with the Madman

Despite being out ceilidh-ing into the wee small hours, Sunday morning saw Rod, Ann John and their old friend Mad Malcs, who was visiting for the weekend, pile out of the car into a freezing wind just north of the Glenshee ski centre. The objective was helping Mad Malcs bag some of his remaining Munros.

Although we had expected a bit of snow we hadn’t expected it to be quite so wintry right down into the glens, with plenty of ice about. This had the upside that the often boggy approach to Carn an Tuirc was frozen and much less messy than normal. We took the direct route straight up the front, which was a bit of a novelty as the rest of us reckoned that we probably hadn’t walked the hill for at least 15 years, although we had skied it at least once a year for that long.

Heading up Carn an Tuirc

 We didn’t hang around long in the biting wind at the summit and trotted off south towards Cairn of Claise. Soon we were off the boulder fields and wishing that we had brought our skis as the reports of it being baseless cosmetic fluff proved incorrect. We could have easily skied most of the day in conditions that, in many winters, would be about as good as it gets.

Cairn of Claise

By the second summit the weather was clearing up nicely and the wind dropping. Stopping for first lunch in a sheltered sun-trap felt more like alpine touring than November walking in Scotland. Then we saw one of the strangest sights we’d seen in the hills for some time – a snow bike for want of a better term. It was like a mountain bike with massively oversized tyres, wide wheels and presumably very low gears. By the look of the trail it left it was going in about twice as deep as skis would and while that was an improvement on walking none of us felt envious – it looked like hard work.

 

Heading towards Glas Maol

The plod up Glas Maol was just that but by now the weather was stunning and we were enjoying topping up the tans. At the summit there was quite a collection of people. We had been wondering where everyone had got to on such a nice day as we had only seen

three up to then.

After second lunch it was time to split. Rod and Mad Malcs went south for the final Munro of the day, Ann & John headed back north to fetch the car and drive back to collect the others. 

Descending towards Cairnwell

Glas Maol

Glen Clunie and Beinn a Bhurid