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| Late afternoon light |
One afternoon a few days ago I headed up into the Cairngorms in the hope of seeing the sunset. The day was sunny and quite warm for the last day of February but the forecast was for cloud coming in from the south-west on strong winds. I hoped this wouldn’t arrive too soon but at just the right time for the setting sun to colour the clouds red and gold.
My favourite times in the mountains are dawn and dusk. However,
as I’m a night person who wakes up slowly as the day progresses I see far more
of the latter than the former, especially on day walks. To see the dawn I need
to be already there, camped high up. An early start from home and then walking
in the dark doesn’t work for me.
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| Blue sky on the ascent |
On this walk I also hoped the change in the weather would bring more complex and variable light. Brilliant sunshine and a blue sky are wonderful and I do love them but changing light is more interesting. It makes for better photographs too.
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| Clouds approaching. |
Blue sky and sunshine accompanied me up to the north ridge of Cairn Gorm. The breeze was light and I didn’t need hat or gloves. That changed when I reached the ridge and met a much stronger cold south-west wind that was bringing clouds.
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| Clouds getting closer. |
Summits not too far away were already vanishing into greyness. To the east though the hills were still in sunshine. The lighting was already dramatic.
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| Stac na h-Iolaire |
Heading down the north ridge I had the wind at my back. There were large areas of hard snow but I was able to skirt round these, as I had on the ascent, and my crampons and ice axe stayed on the pack. Ahead the crag of Stac na h-Iolaire glowed gold in the now low sun.
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| Suddenly in the mist |
Seemingly out of nowhere mist enveloped me and snow and hail
began to fall. Visibility went from hundreds of kilometres to a few hundred
metres. The temperature dropped noticeably. The squall was brief. After ten
minutes or so it had passed over and was just a grey cloud heading north. A
useful reminder of how fast the weather can change though and the need to
always be prepared for that.
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| Lochan na Beinne & Loch Morlich |
The aftermath of the squall revealed a thin drifting band of mist between the shining waters of Lochan na Beinne and Loch Morlich. The mist caught the low sun, shimmering in the light. Above the sky was now mostly overcast.
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| Sunset |
Descending there was one brief glimpse of colour in the sky before the clouds thickened and all was grey. The weather had changed.
The trickiest part of the walk was the final stretch. The
path was muddy and in places icy. It was growing dark rapidly. I managed without
a headlamp until a final steep descent to a bridge over a rushing burn on a
narrow path with patches of snow and ice. Then the day was over. There’d been
no spectacular sunset but there had been interesting light and just getting up
into the mountains and forgetting about the rest of the world, especially at the
moment, felt such a relief.