A stolen day

This wasn't the best view of the day* - that was the grin on my mate Rich's face when we popped into the Ice Factor for a coffee & chat. A few hours after this was taken we popped back in to test ourselves out on the frozen walls of the old Kinlochleven aluminium smelter - now put to a fantastic use as an indoor ice climbing wall. Rich is one of the people this journal is for - someone I should see more of - but stuff always seem to get in the way. More than any peak bagging the chance to sit & catch up made the awfulness of yesterdays drive up worthwhile.
Today's walk was made all the better by being stolen from the midst of the seemingly unending storms that have battered the UK of late - for once the optimism in the forecast was well placed - whilst heavy clouds added some drama to the hills to the west of us we were able to pop in and out of sun and cloud all day, finally finding some consolidated snow at about the 850m contour. The cornices for the last 200m to the summit added a little fun too!

*The view is Am Bodach from the glorious ridge of Na Gruagaichean.