January days are short and cold. I got out a couple of times, both much needed, the second time was the better trip, starting with an amble up Glen Auchreoch, a sheltered spot under a tree beside the burn, which froze over in the night under the watchful gaze of a night sky brim full of stars – it was incredibly beautiful but kind of cold, around -7 or -8°C.

Saturday was immense, a long chain of hills with some fairly long ascents and descents in the trackless snow and temperatures of around -2°C, but no wind and startling visibility. Not as many people out as expected but I’m never going to complain about that.

A pair of ravens were out there floating on the breeze inspecting would be carrion in the form of walkers, its great to see more and more pairs appearing in Scotland, there is something reassuring in their presence.

I’m reasonably fit but not properly hill fit yet, and it told, the end of the day and the fading light saw me trudging through the boggy watershed at the top of the Allt an Rund, the frozen mud clinging to the underside of my boots so it looked like I was wearing platform walking boots, stopping every now and then to try and kick the mud off against a rock.

It was dark by the time I regained the main track but enough ambient light to pick my way through without a headtorch.
Home that night was tucked away in a forestry plantation under a blanket of heavy snow.

The plans for Sunday were abandoned due to worrying about not be able to extract my car from the car park and some serious pain in my right hip.
A tentative drive saw me back on the almost snow bound main road and a very slow drive back home.