blog

First snows of winter

Ladhar Bheinn
28/12/2014
At last the first proper winter weather has arrived with a good depth of snow high up and none of the wet stuff on the way up. So on with the crampons, grab the tent and off we go .A superb walk up to Stob a Cearcaill in time to see the sun disappearing into the mist, but I managed to get a couple of atmospheric shots of Aonach Sgoilte. Then it was up with the tent and on with the kettle. I'd hoped to get a nightime timelapse sequence over the snowy mountains, but in came the cloud and the snow, so that finished that idea. Nothing ventured though, so at 0700 on went the breakfast and with the wind starting to blow a bit, it was out with the camera to catch the first light of day (a very civilized 0900 at this time of year). Luckily the sky cleared with some lovely dawn colours, but the wind was now getting up, so the tripod had to stay in the bag. The early images were disappointing due to the high ISO setting I needed and being unable to use a tripod. But as the light improved, so did the images. As I was pretty high up already I decided to climb over Ladhar Bheinn. With the harsh, contrasty light, black and white I felt was the way to go. Stunning on the top of the hill, but as I descended the wind increased with some spectacular blowing snow making the landscape look more like the moon.
For a selection of images from this trip, please have a look at the Latest Work gallery.