It has been a while since the last walk! Finally, with word on the street (ie. mwis) being that there should be some snow on the ground, I managed to persuade Ann to go hillwalking with me! The target for the day was Meall nan Tarmachan. After setting off at about 9am, we got to the hill at about 11am, parking just beyond the bridge half a mile north of the national trust visitor center. Luckily, the singletrack road to the parking spot was driveable - ie. not frozen/sheet ice, unlike the other times I've tried it.For most of the journey up it was fairly foggy but almost no wind, with almost no rain. Ambient temperature was about 1-2 degrees lower down but with no wind and some strenuous walking, that made it feel fairly warm. As we got to about 700m, we began to see isolated slithers of a very light dusting of snow/ice. We had a quick stop for lunch, where we deployed our small gas cooking stove (MSR Pocket Rocket) to whip up some bacon sandwiches. No HP sauce though, but apart from that, very tasty.
After lunch, onwards. At about 900m, the snow cover hit about 50%, ie. more of the ground was snow covered than non-snow covered. We hit a small top at 923m, then down a bit and on to the final ascent to Meall nan Tarmachan itself. This final part of the walk changed character a bit - instead of large grassy or heather-covered slopes, this final section was quite steep and rocky, and combined with the snow everywhere, meant we had to tread carefully.
At about 3pm we hit the top! From about 1000m up, it really was beginning to feel wintery. Between 900m-1000m the snow was just a thin dusting which had partially melted, but above 1000m it began to feel a bit more authentic, probably it was just cold enough to stop any melting here. Time for some photos, then back down the way we came.
