It has been pretty snowy here in Edinburgh the past two days, meaning that the snow has stayed on the ground after it fell. Usually, it snows, and then it rains, and the snow is washed away but the bitter cold stays. The weather being cold enough to make the snow actually stick has made it seem almost warmer, because one is able to wear warm clothes without them being soaked by rain and then blasted by wind. Sunday was one of those perfect winter days where it is cold and white, but sunny. I went to the Pentlands, a regional park about a half hour bus ride out of Edinburgh, for an 8 mile hike with some friends.
This is the level of snow in Edinburgh - not much, but enough to make the world seem bright and white instead of grey.
The Pentlands were covered in much more snow than Edinburgh, enough that some people were cross country skiing. I haven't seen snow all winter, at least not like this, and it was awesome to hike through deep white powder.
We set out on hour hike in the valley between the two hills, the valley where the lake is in the above photo, and then climbed up out of the valley, to the top of the mountain, and then continued our expedition across there ridgeline pictured directly above. It was awesome.
At the very beginning of the hike - the lake.
one friend brought her dog
We ran up here before stopping for lunch.
There was only one unforeseen issue (well for me there were two - one was that I didn't quite have the proper foot wear and my shoes were soaked within the first mile, but this wasn't too big of a deal). The biggest problem we faced were the entirely unhelpful Edinburgh bus times. On Sundays, there is a single bus going into the stop we wanted in the Pentlands before noon, and it leaves at 10:30. So we caught one. The issue then is that there are only two return buses, one at 3:15 and one at 8pm. We wanted the 3:15 one, but this meant we had to book it a little on our hike. We did so, and as we speed walked along the drab asphalt road following our glorious ascent of the mountains, we were gifted by the sight of our bus pulling around a corner fifteen in front of us and disappearing. Yep, we missed it. If you have been following this blog, you'll know that these transportation issues are kind of a theme for me in Scotland (see the Rannoch post). Anyway, this wasn't an insurmountable problem. We consulted two foreign couples we encountered on the road about where the nearest bus stop may be and whether it might have buses into Edinburgh before 8pm, but they, being foreigners as well, knew about as much as we did, so we finally asked google maps, followed the little blue line on the screen an extra two miles into Penicuik, and caught a bus into Edinburgh, thus concluding a day well spent.
The top is the ridge line we walked over.
Hiking in the snow also gave me a chance to practice snow shooting with my camera (hence the photo overload for this post), which I've never used in the snow before, and also to test how the cold will affect the battery. This is important as I will be using this camera in Norway!
He beat us to the top...