An early Monday morning start saw me standing at Fort William railway station waiting for the 7.44am train to Glasgow, my destination was Corrour Station, only 46 minutes away and the highest station in the UK and probably the remotest too. My goal for this mini expedition was to walk into Ben Alder Cottage bothy with enough supplies to keep me going for 3 days and to explore the surrounding mountains. My route would take me right past Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, which is only a mile away from Corrour Station, so I left an additional carrier bag here with a further days worth of food, for the journey back. My route then continued along the Southern shore of Loch Ossian to Corrour Shooting Lodge, I then followed the river (Uisge Labhar) North-Eastwards for about 6kms to the shoulder of Beinn Chumhainn, where I crossed the river and headed up the Bealach Cumhann where I picked up a good trail which leads down to Loch Ericht and Ben Alder Cottage. As I approached the bothy I could see smoke coming from the chimney so I knocked on the door and said hello, inside where 3 guys sitting round a cosy fire, they welcomed me in and got the stove on. they were part of a group of 7 friends who had been here a couple of days already, the other 4 were out trying to climb Aonach Beag, unsuccessfully as it turned out. They knew this place very well as they had been coming here as a group, with other members too, for years and it had become an annual event to be looked forward to. They were a sociable bunch of people and had managed to carry in enormous amounts of food, fuel and alcohol which along with my supplies made for a very comfortable evening in Spartan surroundings. The highlight of the evening was the appearance of the haggis and the Diablo – a small, lightweight, toasted sandwich maker. The haggis was steamed and Billy, a Captain in one of  the Highland Regiments,  gave an impressive rendition of Robert Burns “Address to a Haggis”, see it here on You Tube. Thin wraps were then placed in the Diablo and sliced salami sausage, sauces and haggis were used as a filling with another wrap placed on top, the Diablo was closed and the excess trimmed off and it was then placed in the fire for a couple of minutes, the result was a beautifully formed and very tasty toasted sandwich… an unexpected treat in such a location.

It had snowed a little overnight and there was a fine sunrise over Loch Ericht the next morning, a cold wind was blowing as I set off heading up Bealach Breabag hoping to do the two Munro’s, Beinn Bheoil and Ben Alder. The snow heading up the Bealach was knee-deep at times, in places it had a firm crust on top which made walking easy and other places you sank straight into it, higher up on Beinn Bheoil the strong icy-cold north-westerly wind had hardened the snow and I put crampons on for the very windy ridge leading to the summit. It didn’t take long to reverse my route to the Bealach where I headed straight up the steep slopes leading to the Ben Alder plateau, eventually the corniced edges of Garbh Coire came into view sweeping round to the right so I knew I was getting close, however the weather was changing quickly and in a few minutes the mist and low cloud enveloped me and I was in a complete whiteout, it really was like being on the inside of a ping-pong ball which made for nervous progress especially as I knew there were large cornices to my right and I was close to just turning around and heading back down, however I started to get tantalising glimpses of the horizon again and after a few minutes the wind had blown the low cloud away revealing that I was still on course and very close to the trig point marking the summit of Ben Alder. I had some great views reversing my route back over the plateau and it was a surprisingly quick descent in the deep snow Back to Ben Alder Cottage. The now deserted bothy was eerily quiet after last night shenanigans and before leaving the guys had done a good job tidying everything up and had even made a new fire, ready to light, which was much appreciated. I waited until it got dark before lighting the fire and it had just got going when I heard a knock on the door and a guy came in, i was quite shocked to realise that I knew him… it was Mick Tighe, a well-known Mountain guide and character in these parts. 22 years ago I went on one of his Skye ridge traverse and rock climbing weeks and had subsequently been to a couple of his winter safety and mountaineering lectures. Tomorrow he was hoping to do the same route as I did today but using cross-country skis instead.

The next morning Mick was up early and I took a picture of him as he was about to leave, it was a very cold start and a lovely sunrise but there was already signs of clouds moving in, half an hour later and I was off too, crossing the Alder Burn by the strange-looking bridge and heading for the three hills lit up by the early morning sun in front of me, away to my right I could see Mick already high up on the Bealach Breabeg heading for Ben Alder. I was heading for the right hand ridge of Meall a Bhealaich with the idea to traverse the ridge to Sgor Choinnich then the Munro’s of Sgor Gaibhre and Carn Dearg before dropping down to Loch Ossian Youth Hostel. As I approached the first peak on this list the weather had taken a turn for the worst and visibility and temperature were dropping quite quickly  and I was now totally reliant on the map and compass to make progress and it was a big relief to finally locate the frozen summit of Carn Dearg and head off through the deep snow down the mountain. As I approached Loch Ossian I was surprised to see it was now frozen over its entire length and it looked very bleak, quite a change from the walk in only a couple of days ago. It was a relief to get onto the good land-rover track next to the Loch and I finally arrived at the hostel at 5.00pm. Loch Ossian Youth Hostel is a small and cosy place perched on the edge of the Loch and even has its own tame stag which comes down off the hills to feed on scraps.

The next morning and I was up early again and set off at 7.00am for the long walk (maybe 25 Miles) back to Fort William. I was expecting and hoping for a cold and crispy start as my intended route can be very boggy in places but it was in fact noticeably milder and a lot of the lower level snow had disappeared overnight. My route was via Creaguaineach Lodge at the head of Loch Treig, then heading west along the river (Abhain Rath) past the bothies at Staoineag and Meanach then over the watershed, with the Mamores to the left and the Grey Corries to the right and dropping down to the car park at the head of Glen Nevis, then after just half a mile of road walking a young couple kindly asked if I would like a lift back to Fort William, i gratefully accepted their offer. Early next morning I drove back home, fresh snow and good light made the drive through Glencoe and over Rannoch Moor very pleasant and there were lots of landscape photographers out trying to capture the moment. I also called in to see the Kelpies near Falkirk they too looked stunning too in the strong winter sun.