"Welcome to the news at 10." I have to go. Findlay will be waiting for me and I hate to be late for an important appointment. Loch Muick may be just over an hour away but the dark Deeside night gives no company as my diesel car noisily purrs through the affluent granite villages dotted along this most famous of Scottish rivers.
"We get our revenge several hours later as we make no effort to be
quiet as they attempt to rest in their inadequate sleeping bags."
The road up the glen has not been ploughed since sunset but there are tyre tracks to follow; rails to guide me round the corners. Too fast, the back end slides. Watch it Benson! Don't want to blow it here, not now. A week's worth of waiting blown for a stupid corner.
Findlay is already there, his cold eyes straining through the glass opaqued by the frost. But he is not angry at my modest lateness, after all it's only polite to be 30 minutes late.
>> Shady Grove Road, ungraded and adventurous. Pic: Guy Robertson See Larger Pic
The back of my estate car makes for a pleasant sleep for a few hours before the silence is shattered by some southerners bursting into the car park, their chariot - a clapped out Fiesta - still glowing from its heroic efforts over the Cairnwell. They keep us entertained for what seems like hours as they discuss the virtues of the "biscuit factory" shortcut through Oldham on their way from Sheffield!
We get our revenge several hours later as we make no effort to be quiet as they attempt to rest in their inadequate sleeping bags, heavy with frost, laid out like corpses by their sleeping car.
The snow crunches underfoot. A faint shaft of light escapes from under the ladies toilet and illuminates a thousand bright crystals. "Squatters," I mumble - climbers grateful for the Upper Deeside Access Trust's 5 star howff.
As we continue up the track, my face broadens into a smile as another Lochnagar adventure begins…
"Lochnagar has been in superb condition, perhaps how it used to be,
with many of the faces plastered in thin nebular ice."
Lochnagar or the 'gar as it is called by the locals, stands proud above Royal Deeside and is one of Scotland's finest winter climbing destinations. The mountain with it's deep moody gullies and stout ridges, has superb winter climbing from modern mixed test pieces, through serious thin ice routes, to classic gullies and buttresses all of which have become part of the legend of Scottish winter climbing.
>> Avalanche down Parallel B Gully. Alan Mullin is somewhere behind on the first ascent of Rolling Thunder. Pic: Pete Benson See Larger Pic
Over the last few winters, Lochnagar has been in superb condition, perhaps how it used to be, with many of the faces plastered in thin nebular ice. This has led to several outstanding new routes as well as important second ascents from the last great renaissance in Scottish winter climbing, the mid 1980s. The mountain has matured and come of age as one the great Scottish winter climbing venues.
