Fiarach - Glengarry Lodge day 4

We awoke to another snowy/rainy morning so opted to stay in the Cabin till it at least looked like it had improved a little bit! Our chosen hill for the day was Fiarach, it looked like an interesting winter hill as it had lots of small pools of water on the top. It also wasn't far to go from the Cabin. To avoid the road walking we drove a short distance to the parking area at Tom Na Biodeg from there we followed tracks to reach the track which leads into Gleann Auchreoch.

We hit the snowline as we followed the track, and it was nice to be on soft creaky snow rather than the thawing snow we'd had so far during our trip. It was also really nice to see the Native Scotts pine trees lining the pretty river side. It reminded me of the Cairngorms.

You eventually reach a locked gate into the Estate and it's at this point you need to turn off the nice friendly track and start heading up. Although steep we broke up the ascent by having multiple sledge runs on the map case and making a snow man.

The snow was pretty deep once up high and there were plenty of icicles around.

The hill has multiple high points and we explored them all. The windy was really chilly and we lucked out by finding a spot out of the wind behind a snow bank facing one of the small lochans. They looked stunning in the sunshine.

We reached one of the last high points which had a small cairn in time for the sun to come out and we were treated to stunning views all around.

We decided to continue to follow the fence to the last high bit of the hill before dropping down. You had to be careful as the ground wasn't frozen and the ground around the fence was very boggy, we managed to avoid the worst by hopping from tussock to tussock!

As we continued our walk a big snow shower blew in with stronger wind, Emma has to get her snow goggles out as it was painful!

We headed off down the hill to aim towards a firebreak which would take us to the West Highland Way. We had to detour slightly away from a huge snow bank, looking back you could see how easily it could have collapsed under us. Once on safer ground we found a nice slope to practice sledging on, the snow was so good we took the chance to build another snowman & Emma had a go with the ice axe at her request. We must have played for a good 45 minutes and it was with some display when we relooked at the map and the reality of how far we still had to walk hit home!

 I am slightly renowned for being a bit careless in boggy ground, my philosophy being that if you move fast you are less likely to sink in. This worked pretty well for me descending the boggy ground until I got to a deceptively snowy patch. I fell though the snow and started to sink getting icy water into my boots (going through my gaiters and waterproof trousers) I threw my weight forwards and Steve rushed over to help, getting bogged in the process. He managed to haul me out, and I spent the next 15 minutes wringing out my socks and pouring water from my boots. The water had nearly reached my knees so I was pretty chilly. We found the forest break we needed, and then began 2.5 miles of bog avoidance - when we reached what we thought was a dead end after a mile we started to worry we had picked the wrong forest break. Out came the GPS and we confirmed we were where we thought we were, it transpired that the trees had grown up either side and had obscured the way on. We were fortunate that the snow was so deep in the forest break you could just about walk on it without dropping through to the wet ground below - I would not like to do this route in non snowy conditions unless it was in the height of summer!

My wet boot was uncomfortably cold (I already have pretty bad circulation in my feet) I was wracking my brains about what I could do to help it, in the end deciding to stick my foot in a plastic bag then put my boot back on. This was a brilliant idea and my foot soon warmed up, I wished I had done this as soon as it got wet..

Eventually the forest break reached the West Highland Way, I was so happy to be out the forest I could have hugged it! We then had an undulating walk along the way back to the car parking area of which we passed the 13th Century St Fillians Church en route. We were so tired by this point we probably didn't appreciate the history as much as we should have done. Perhaps an ambitious route, but it was brilliant to be out in deep snow and sunshine.

Views from our Cabin