Thursday 3 February 2011

A slight breeze in the air

It was a wee bit windy on the hills today.  Once the snow gates had opened Andy, Andy and I (yes it made communication a bit tricky!)  nipped into Coire an T-Sneachda for some guide practise.  We walked in under blue skies after the mornings snow had cleared with the aim of grabbing a quick route before the forecasted afternoon winds gained full force.  We were fairly sheltered on the route so hadn't noticed how much the wind had strengthened and how much snow had started coming down.

Bailing out of the Coire was the easy bit, the fun started once we tried to drive back down the ski road when we discovered the wind was strong enough to blow the car broadside on the icy roads.  We ended up 'walking' the car down with a person either side to spot the road, all quite exciting in the end! An hour and a half later we reached the snow gates, a journey that usually take 10 min max...

 Walking in under blue skies...

 ...and out in slightly different conditions

just to give you an idea of how much the wind had picked up at this time the weather station on Cairngorm was reading a constant 81mph with 114mph gusts

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