A Winter Follais

In the days immediately preceding this day out, Storm Fionn had taken her toll and dumped so much snow in such a short period that the M74 was closed because of the number of stranded vehicles and Police Scotland had, at one point, issued advice to not use the roads at all.  The drive to the Cairngorms wasn’t too bad in the aftermath but it was obvious that much of the snow on the ground wasn’t going to be consolidated.

Seven of us left the comfort of Milehouse Cottage and strode out along the East Highland Way towards the day’s objectives of Creag Dubh and the Argyll Stone.  After a snack stop at Drake’s Bothy the uphill started in earnest, weaving our way through the forest at the lower part of Coire Follais.  Both the Ordnance Survey Explorer and Landranger maps indicated a path up the coire but even using GPS to place us right on top of it, we found no sign that it existed.

Drake's Bothy

Progress was slow as we plodded through unconsolidated knee-deep snow resulting in some colourful language from one of our shorter-legged ladies!

Monadhliath from Coire Follais

It became quickly apparent that the group was not going to reach the summit and descend in daylight, or even dusk.  Three of our fittest continued as the rest of us turned tail.  The sky was clear and the view good enough for us to make out a lone walker at the Argyll Stone and also note the slow progress of our summit party.  Deep drifts took their toll on them and they also decided to turn around head downhill.

The Argyll Stone

Although we didn’t actually achieve very much on the day, the laughter and good company will last long in the memory.