Light and labour - a winter walk on Culblean Hill

The start of the year has seen some really cold conditions in northern and eastern Scotland.  For days either side of New Year the temperature has rarely been above freezing and there's been steady accumulation of snow, coming in showers on a north to north easterly airflow.  Sunday 3rd January looked to be a good day, so Allan, Lorna and I looked for a suitable hill to walk.

Given the prevailing wind and the complete snow cover on high ground we could see from our homes, we looked for a hill which had a north or easterly aspect to climb.  this would mean that the bulk of the snow would have been scoured off to be deposited on south to south westerly slopes, and so give us easier going underfoot.  We chose Culblean Hill - and it wasn't until after we chose that we realised Allan and I had climbed this hill three years previously to the day - in quite similar winter conditions though with less snow cover.

One of the hardest parts of the day was getting to the bottom of the hill - the roads were quite treacherous as there had been a re-freeze of lying snow followed by freezing rain and snow overnight - it was a slow and cautious journey to the starting point.  The initial track is quite steep, but in light powder snow cover under a blue-and-white sky it seemed no real effort; we stopped frequently to admire the views anyway!

Across to the north, Morven (Big Hill) retained cloud cover all day as forecast - which was another reason for choosing a slightly lower hill.  Just the lower shoulder stayed clear, the upper ridge of this super hill generating a cloud banner as cold air was forced upslope.

The view behind us over Cromar towards Pressendye opened up as we climbed - another hill which has given great winter days.  To the north clear air and bright sunshine predominated.....

...but over our shoulders a change was heading from the east as a big snow shower built up.

With the great majority of the climbing done we headed onto the flat and featureless summit area of Culblean Hill.  As we were on the northern edge of this mid-height plateau the snow cover was still quite light, having been scoured by the wind.

The good going didn't last and it was a real labour in knee-deep snow across the plateau towards the summit cairns.  The light was ethereal with shifting tones and constantly changing light levels as cloud streamed across close overhead.  A couple of compass bearings were needed to keep us on track as we waded through deep snow cover whilst trying to avoid the peat hags we knew to be hereabouts.

At the southern edge of the highest ground the view was quite a contrast to the sunny conditions up to the north.  Here, dark clouds with a defined edge lowered over the valley of the River Dee - the town of Ballater a darker patch below wooded hills.

To the west the views were of rolling snow-covered hills off into the far distance, much less clear than that day of three years ago but no less impressive.  It was wild, cold and utterly magnificent; a small hill of just 604m/1982ft giving us some really great winter hillwalking.

It's a truism that every winter hillwalk in Scotland should be treated as a mountaineering venture.  Our hills aren't as high or as remote as in many parts of the world, but have very changeable conditions and experience weather of a ferocity usually associated with much higher mountains.  We'd brought full winter gear including crampons and needed all our spare layers on a small hill.  We'd planned our route carefully to avoid the deepest snow, but still found hard labour - and we needed accurate navigation to locate the correct gully between two tracks we could use for our descent.

Just 200m of descent took us into a different world.  the snow cover very much lighter, the wind a whisper of what we'd felt on the high ground and visibility restored.  Still though, the play of light was in evidence with cloud streaming in from the North Sea trailing curtains of snow.  I tried to capture the quality of light on this walk, shooting lots of images which just failed to capture the wild, luminous light.  This image does no justice to the scale of the cloud streamer overhead - and I'm still not sure whether I prefer it in colour.....

 ...or in black and white!

Three years to the day since climbing this little hill in the earliest part of January, it had again given us a day to remember.  We'll be back - but with new Coronavirus measures limiting meeting up outdoors to just one other person, it may be a while before we can all get back on a hill together.