Hills: Carn na Drochaide (Corbett, 818m)
Distance: 13 miles
Time: 4.5 hours (including stops)
Weather: "Wintry"
Route: View on OS Maps

It seemed the hillwalkers forecast on Sunday morning had been wrong; for much of the journey out from Aberdeen on the 201 Stagecoach the skies were blue and the first hills looked beautiful. Morven in particular, with a cap of pristine fresh snow (we had seen the clouds march towards Aberdeen on Thursday but they had never hit), looked stunning. We passed through Ballater where there was a thin covering of snow on the green by the church, but it was only really as we entered the trees a few miles before Crathie that things changed. The bus driver commented “it was like going through the wardrobe into Narnia”. All of sudden the branches were laden with snow, and fresh flakes were drifting down onto a ground that was increasingly white and winter-like.

Corbetts Climbed: Morven
Distance: 15 miles
Time: 6 hours (including stops)
Weather: Mild, overcast early on but sunshine later, very windy on top Route: View on OS Maps

Poor planning leads oft to much tarmac should be a new saying. Not fully thinking through my walk, or more accurately changing my mind several times on the way, meant I added on six miles of tarmac drudgery onto what was otherwise a fantastic day out in the Cairngorm foothills.

Distance: 15.3 miles
Time: 6.75 hours (incl stops)
Weather: Perfect winter conditions, sub-zero, no clouds
Munros Attempted: Beinn Fhada
Munros Summited: None Route: View on OS Maps

Another perfect morning in Kintail: the air icy and cold and the sky already a deep shade of blue as I ate my breakfast. The surface of Loch Duich was ruffled only by a pair of herons as I walked briskly along the side of the A87 to the turn off at Allt a' chruinn. Sgurr an Airgid was delighting in the feel of the morning sunlight on its snow-speckled upper reaches.

Distance: 14 miles
Time: 7 hours (incl stops)
Weather: Overcast, mild, gusty on top, later clearing
Munro Tops Summited: Sgurr Leac nan Each
Corbetts: Sgurr Mhic Bharraich
Lesser Peaks: Sgurr a Gharg Gharaidh

It was overcast and mild as I headed through Shiel Bridge, skirting the campsite and heading south towards Sgurr a Creige, the nearest end of The Saddle. I learnt a valuable lesson as at a fork in the track (NG 936 185) I carried straight on and found myself heading through trees that clung to the sides of the gorge. After battling my way along a little way I realised my mistake and scrambled up slithery, grassy slopes to regain the track at the top of the slope. The notes about this had all said to avoid the new track but I didn't realise it was a three way split rather than a two. Later in the day I came down the correct track!

Distance: 9.7 miles
Time: 5 hours (including stops) Route: View on OS Maps

For once the malevolent weather gods of Aberdeen had taken a Sunday off, the coach arrived early and we even got a stop for bacon rolls at the services of Strathcaro where the authentic seventies experience is free. At the back of the coach it was Baltic and so the frigid air at Lumley Den was not much of a surprise as we kitted up under promisingly blue skies.

This time last year I was heading up the flanks of Morrone in a deep covering of fresh snow. This year's detox walk was somewhat different with ice and winds providing the entertainment as Dave and I crossed the mysterious Sgor Buidhe plateau above Ballater.

There was excitement, adventure and bacon rolls even before we hit the hill on our trip to Glen Esk for the November 2008 walk. The coach turned up a few minutes late but our troop of 19 souls who braved an inclement, dark, cold Aberdeen morning were soon being whisked down the A90 at a good pace. The rain died away, the sun rose over a steel-grey sea and our souls lifted. Unfortunately, so did the bus’ engine temperature which caused us to dive into a lay-by shortly after we had sped past the Fettercairn turn off.

Fourteen hardy Stockets climbed aboard Gordon’s Luxury Coach at Mile End School early on Saturday morning. Silvester did an excellent job of tearing around the top of the Cairngorms but even so it was more than three hours after leaving Aberdeen that we rolled past turf-roofed houses in Glen Feshie and were deposited at the end of the road.

I don't think it is too often that a weather dependent plan works out on the west coast of Scotland but luckily for us today it did. A forecasted shift in the wind from south west (laden with moisture) to north-east (dry and cold) occured sometime in the wee small hours. By Friday morning the skies were clear, Beinn Damh could be seen from the window (complete with summit) and the air felt fresh and full of optimisim.

A circuit of Beinn Bhan with a scramble up one of its eastern arms and a return along its summit ridge