On the evening of the 16th February I drove up the Braemar road from Perth on the way to the car park at the end of the public road in remote Glen Muick. The journey was to enable a hike up the majestic Deeside munro Lochnagar the next day. I bedded down for a cold night in the car, waking the following morning to frosted windows and a cloudless sky. The car park now has a £2 charge for parking but I hadn't thought to bring any cash with me and the thought of driving a 16 mile round trip to Ballater to use a cash machine before finding somewhere open at 7am on a Sunday morning to give me some change was unappealing to say the least. I chose not to pay and to begin the walk regardless. A small transgression perhaps, not one I'm proud of but given the state of much of the world in which we live, not one I'm going to lose too much sleep over.

I'd managed to get down through the Spittal of Glen Muick, across the glen to Allt-na-giubhsaich and up the land rover track to a height of around 650 metres by 10am. The weather was perfect. Near total silence. Only the trickle of slowly melting snow and ice in the morning sunshine. This climb was another of those I'd attempted in the past but not completed. I was now just past the point I'd turned back on that previous occasion. It had been the strength of the wind that had forced a retreat last time and that was not going to be a problem today. Only the very lightest of breezes stirred the air, even at this height. Cutting south west from the land rover track I headed for the col between Lochnagar and Meikle Pap and shot the picture you can see here of the great amphitheatre of the corrie wall of Lochnagar. After a coffee and a pork pie I ascended "the ladder" and finally skirted the rim of the corrie to reach Cac Carn Mor (1150m) and then Cac Carn Beag (1155m). I was sitting on the summit at midday and spent a happy 30 minutes in peaceful contemplation marvelling at the stunning views.

I decided on taking the "scenic" route back and walked south west from the summit to reach Carn A' Choire Bhoidheach (1110m) and The Stuic (1093m) before tackling Carn an t-Sagairt Beag (1044m) and Carn an t-Sagairt Mor (1047m). The ascent of the latter was a little tricky as the north west facing steep slope of the hill was covered in very hard icy snow. I'd not brought the crampons with me and managed to get to the top using some old wind-worn snow steps someone had made when the snow was clearly much younger and softer. Near the summit I found the wing of an RAF English Electric Canberra jet which crashed here in January 1956. The rest of the plane is up here too and some searching would reveal other large pieces of engines and fuselage.

If reaching the summit had been tricky then descending would best be described as exhilarating. I used one edge of my boot sole as a brake and one hand on the ice for stability and slid increasingly quickly into the glen to the south east of the hill. Great fun. The walk out from here is rather long but the beautiful weather, solid frozen Dubh Loch and peaceful tree lined Loch Muick made for a very pleasant afternoon.