I headed north up the side of Loch Lomond this morning to Bridge of Orchy in search of my first snow of the season. The forecast was for snow above 300m, and when I got there I wasn’t disappointed – the snowline started at the bottom of Coire an Dòthaidh.
It was boggy going to begin with as I picked my way as best I could through the water-logged peat. As I got higher up though the ground was partly frozen so there was less chance of disappearing up to the knees in peat! Eventually I got to the snowline, and with it the cloud base.
The cloud was getting thicker as I climbed out of Coire an Dòthaidh and into Coire a’ Ghabhalaich, and by the time I made my way around the side of Beinn an Dòthaidh things were decidedly white.
However, looking in the opposite direction towards the hills of Glen Lyon the view was much clearer.
Where I was going looked nothing like that though, and as I began to climb the south-east side of Beinn an Dòthaidh the cloud got thicker again and snow started to fall. The snow underfoot was nice and powdery and maybe 15cm deep, so easy to walk on as I made my way towards the summit in very poor visibility. After a couple of false summits I made it to the real one – not much of a view though!
Moving closer to the edge of the summit though there were a few brief breaks in the cloud giving me an obscured view of Rannoch Moor and neighbouring Beinn Achalader.
After spending a bit of time hiding behind the cairn from the freezing winds that were blowing in from the south-west, I made my way back down, slipping and sliding into Coire a’ Ghabhalaich before dropping out of the clouds and snow on my way to Bridge of Orchy.