Photos

Stob Choire Claurigh (1177metres), The Grey Corries, Central Highlands of Scotland.
Winter mountaineering in Scotland travelogue (Feb 2006).

Two days before I took this image I failed to climb this mountain due to the extreme weather conditions: high winds, white out conditions, and above all the knee deep fresh snow made progress impossible; I turned back just before the summit.

Returning two days later, the weather was much improved as you can see. I was really surprised to find these strange frozen footsteps. They were created by walking on the deep fresh snow, which compresses it into firmer ice; then the wind blows away (erodes) the softer surrounding snow, leaving these strange fossilised version of the footsteps behind. It was weird to think these were probably my footsteps from my previous attempt to climb this mountain, two days before.