Muir of Inverey
5-7 March 2009
by Sarah
Seven of us went up a day early. Definitely a good move as Friday was by far the best day. We went up Carn Bhac, just along the road from Muir Cottage, four on skis and three on foot, three quite different routes to get there.
Jim and I quickly forgot the first hour of slog up through thick heather as the sun shone and the skiing got better and better.
Sure beats being in the office!
This was about the fanciest turn we got in 16 miles.
Ahhh... putting away the skins with NO wind! And looking forward to Ross's macaroni cheese. And seeing the other 11 new arrivals.
Saturday was unfortunately as predicted on the forecast. Basically yuck with driving rain. Colin and Jim's aspirations to go up Glas Maol quickly foundered and they joined four of us on a trip up to Loch Vrotachan. It was pretty miserable really.
We continued our habit of taking Italians up mountains in dire weather (see Potteries Bunkhouse report) and having to apply professional Scottish expertise to equipment problems on our 'intrepid hut to hut tour'.
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Much cheerier Sunday morning as a blizzard descended and brought lots of freshies. (Or maybe it was because the tea fairy brought crumpets as well as tea.) Caroline admired her new skis.
Caroline pointed out her new skis again in case we still hadn't noticed.
We skied towards Linn of Dee from the cottage.
Some of us suffered wrongwaxitis. Photo by Caroline.
Mark and Mary definitely won on the hat style stakes. We had fun trying to drop snowballs into a lovely round hole in a rock below the bridge at Linn of Dee.
Snow started falling heavily, and most of the group headed back, worrying about the A93 getting blocked. Photo by Caroline.
Four of us continued our tour on the other side of the river.
Those lovely Caley pines that make Deeside.
More classic Deeside scenery. Very pretty (we won't talk about the scratchy skiing).
Skiing back to Muir Cottage. I caught a ski tip and fell into a bog!
A fantastic swirly blizzard to finish the weekend.