Date: Friday 6th March 2020
Company: Myself and Ann-Marie
Distance: c.10km, Ascent: c.600m
On Thursday evening I drove to the Glen Shee car park where I parked-up for the evening. In the car park I witnessed an impressive moon halo and instantly regretted not having taken a wide-angle lens and tripod with me.
Overnight spot at Glen Shee Ski Centre:
After a somewhat chilly night in the van I met up with a friend from the MMC in the car park for an ascent of Glas Maol in advance of meeting up with more friends from the MMC for the club weekend meet.
Having ascended Glas Maol eleven times previously, I was not too fussed about bagging a twelfth ascent. My main objective of the day was to continue from Glas Maol towards Cairn of Claise to hopefully spot some mountain hare.
Having been absent from the hills for a whole month due to weekend after weekend of awful weather, I was looking forward to a weekend of good conditions. Alas, this was not to be the case but at least Friday morning was 'no bad'.
Click here to see a map of the route undertaken
From the car park we set off walking along the excellent track which was covered in fairly deep snow. During the ascent some of the snow was compact and pleasant to walk on while much of the snow was soft and deep and a pain in the derriere to walk in.
Looking back to car park and beyond to Carn Aosda:
Seeing so much snow on these hills reminded me of an ascent of Glas Maol and Creag Leacach back in January 2009.
View towards Creag Leacach:
Even the Cairnwell looked good wearing a white coat
.Looking across to the Cairnwell:
View down Glen Shee:
As well as carrying a typically-heavy winter pack, I was also carrying a circa 2.5kg DSLR and lens. Hopefully I would see some wildlife to make carrying the extra weight worthwhile.
Hill ninja:
Before long we were approaching the ski tows where we said hello to a guy on a snowmobile. I asked if I could borrow it for an hour but alas the answer was "no"
.About to ascend Meall Odhar:
During the ascent of Meall Odhar, Ann-Marie spotted the first mountain hare of the day. They were however fairly distant.
Mountain Hare:
Ann-Marie ascending Meall Odhar:
On approaching the summit of Meall Odhar, a Munro Top of Glas Maol, we stopped to take some photos of the surrounding hills. To the north the Cairngorms looked awesome. As I only had a 400mm lens for my DSLR, the landscape pics were just taken with my iPhone.
View towards the Cairngorms:
Looking back:
I did however take a couple of zoom landscape pics with my DSLR looking towards Beinn a' Bhuird and the Central Cairngorms.
Beinn a' Bhuird:
Central Cairngorms:
On ascending the final 150 metres of Glas Maol the cloud began to drop and we would be walking in cloud for much of the remaining walk
.Approaching the summit of Glas Maol:
Twelfth ascent of Glas Maol complete.
At the summit of Glas Maol:
From the summit of Glas Maol we descended to the col between Glas Maol and Cairn of Claise but saw no wildlife or to be honest anything else. Everything was white. We soon gave up looking for hare returning to the summit of Glas Maol before descending via our route of ascent.
During the descent, once below the cloud, we could see lots more incoming cloud. This walk was a good reminder for me, and a lesson for Ann-Marie, in how quickly the weather can change from blue skies to almost zero visibility.
Incoming weather during descent:
On reaching the car park we had a look about for wildlife spotting a couple of Snow Bunting and a couple more again distant Mountain Hare.
Mountain Hare:
Snow Bunting:
Despite this being a fairly short normally-easy walk, trudging through deep snow for circa 10km certainly took its toll on my thighs. It's been a while since I had 'jelly legs'
.