UK 2012 Schiehallion and Pitlochry, Christmas

For Christmas we stayed in Pitlochry at Scotlands Hotel with Richard's parents and his brother David's girlfriend's family for a somewhat different Christmas tradition.  Our time in Pitlochry included a tour and whisky tasting at Edradour Distillery, the smallest distillery in Scotland, short walks through the town and a Boxing Day hike up Schiehallion.

We climbed Schiehallion from the Brae of Foss car park, and the day was clear and bright and ideal for hiking.

 The mountain is one of the Munros, which include all of the mountains in Scotland greater than 3,000 feet.  The view from the parking lot showed the mountain covered at least halfway up by snow.  Through the day we only encountered seven other groups that decided to walk the mountain that day, making it for a relatively quiet walk. 

The snow was older, and the icier top made for occasional chances to walk on top of the snow instead of sinking down. Unfortunately some of the ice also made for easier slipping/falling, which Richard did twice and Marcy did once (the fewer falls only due to reliance on poles...).

Ptarmigan were common on the walk up to the summit--they frequently crossed our path or could be heard making small chucking sounds behind the rocks.

We hit the summit at about midday, and by then the weather was starting to close in from the east and snow began to fall.  The wind was fairly sharp and we were happy to make our way to the lee side so that we could stay a bit warmer.  But the view was worth the walk--