PHOTOS: My Frozen Climb To The Summit Of Cairngorm

It was a cold final week of April across Scotland but for the heart of the Cairngorm Range, it was more like mid winter than mid spring with heavy snowfall, well below freezing nights and failure to crack freezing by day along with bitter winds.

This day last week I decided to surface early (4.45am) on Thursday April 28, 2016 and drive up to Cairngorm Mountain, hoping to capture some of the last winter conditions of the season.

I wasn’t disappointed as skies through the morning where about as clear as you get, the air below freezing with excellent visibility. Granted, skies did begin clouding over mid to late morning in advance of an approaching weather system but I was lucky with cloud cover coming and going over the summit.

It was cold and I was glad of thermals and facemask. Beyond the upper station, the final ascent to the top, my 2nd summit of Cairngorm, was tough with metres deep of snow and an increasingly icy wind blowing out of the SSE which happened to be in my face.

I reached the top and it was more like a polar wilderness rather than somewhere in Scotland. This sight, with snow and ice encrusted weather station was something I had never witnessed before. The large boulders I crossed back in November where buried by deep drifting snow and the weather station was solidly encased in brittle snow and ice which extended several feet out from the weather station building and tower.

I was at the station for the 11am reading. Air temperature -6C, sustained wind SSE at 24 mph with wind chill of -16C.

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

CREDIT: MARK VOGAN

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