Carn Aosda & The Cairnwell

So........ the plan was the "easy" group of hills to the west of Glenshee Ski Centre. There are 3 Munros in the route given on Walk Highlands. Carn Aosda, Carn a' Gheoidh and The Cairnwell However.......... the jet stream is currently sitting over Scotland and didn't we know it. The weather when we arrived at Glenshee was better than expected. There was snow at the car pack at 650m but there was also blue sky. That was what lulled us into a false sense of security as we headed to the first target of Carn Aosda.

With not enough snow to ski we had te hill to ourselves so just headed directly up one of the ski runs. As we topped out we were soon getting the full hit of the 50 - 70 mph winds.

Discussion quickly ensued on amending the plan. Going back down was the consensus. Even moving off the summit took a lot longer than anticipated as every time we went to move the wind got stronger!!!!!!

Once onto the service track we thought we'd see how for we could get, probably miss out Carn a' Gheoidh but get The Cairnwell. Well it was on our way down....... So off we headed into the spindrift thankfull for the ski hardware showing us the way.

We were getting close to The Cairnwell when the wind got us again. That last km to the summit was brutal and took ages. Every time we took a step it was blowing us off our feet. We eventually made it and were very thankfully for all the bits of buildings up there to provide us with s bit of shelter for lunch.

Now the weather forecast said the wind was meant to ease off as the day went on........ they lied. So it was more playing chicken with the wind. Added to this was the blue sky disappearing and a brutal shower reducing visibility badly. Thankfully we found the sign pointing us in the direction of the car park. Needless to say it was back to blue sky and hee haw wind once we were down.

So thoughtfor the day........ even "easy" hills are tough when the weather wants to be playful. Thanks Jean, Rob and Steve for yet another adventurous day on the hill.

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