Weather/Conditions: Darkness, snow on the summit, falling. Good conditions; look exciting but just fun in reality.
Distance/Ascent/Time: 5.3km / 720m / 1h 50m
Accompanying: Alone

My last hill of the year, and number 250 of that year. I did a lot this year, if anything so much so that I might vary things up in 2018.



2017 was exactly what I wanted it to be: crammed full of mountains. By the end it felt I'd sometimes only done that. But there are creative things to get going with, as well. I was working in the afternoon in Glen Coe and when finished I drove up the glen to park by the no parking sign below the Pap.

What followed was a complete inversion of the previous, tired, day. I just flew up the Pap, and really enjoyed it. Dark with a Moon out meant there was plenty of spatial awareness of the glen around me - therefore little sense of darkness closing me in. I scrambled up by the final rocks, covered in snow and treacherous but for the fact I felt so coordinated, able to move and enjoying moving well.

It started snowing heavily about 100m below top. On the summit, snow was blasting by on a wind, but I had dark views to the lights across the loch at Callart and into Glen Coe. I'd really enjoyed going up: 750m vertical in an hour, which is good! Feels kind of like my new pace, but I was pusing it on the way up as well.

A jogging descent and I was in the Clachaig before I knew what had happened. A great way to finish the year.