WHEN THE WEATHER IS CALM, crisp and clear, winter high in the Cairngorms is glorious. As the strong winds of recent weeks died away, the temperatures dropped and the hills froze, a night out in the snow called. I set off up the path from Coire na Ciste over Creagan Dubh. Snow had fallen recently and drifted in the wind. In places it was soft and deep, whilst in others it had been blown away and only thin icy old snow remained from earlier falls. A few of the latter were extensive enough for crampons. Mostly, I could hop across the iciest sections using stones and boulders.
Having left fairly late, the western sky was darkening and turning orange as I reached the summit of Cairn Gorm, the sun a searing red ball about to set over the frozen mountains.
With the light fading and the cold increasing, I dropped down to a shallow corrie south of the summit and found a flat spot for camp. The snow here was quite thin and I was able to shovel most of it away and pitch on almost clear ground. I left the tent door wide open so I could lie and gaze at the stars and the moon.
I woke to see a band of orange on the eastern horizon above a sea of cloud filling the flatlands beyond the mountains. The temperature was -5.5°. As the sun appeared and the light strengthened, I wandered along the edge of the deep Loch Avon basin gazing down at the dark water, edged and patched with ice, and across to snowy hills. To the east the cloud was rising and slowly winding up Glen Avon.
The sun was high by the time
