Winter walking in the sun

Dave succeeded in dragging me out of bed this morning at the ungodly hour of 5am to get a lift from him and Michael up the Ben to go a spot of winter walking. They disappeared into the darkness as soon as we left the car and I followed on at my own plodding pace. We headed up from the North Face car park and this is the amazing view I got as I approached the CIC hut at about 8 this morning; not long after, the clouds cleared, leaving behind a clear blue sky all day. I headed back down from here to Achintee down the tourist path. The difference between the two different paths is amazing. In the morning I was being overtaken by fierce, bearded mountain types powering up the path to arrive at their routes in time for daybreak and on the way down the tourist path, being met with people posing such questions as, "Is there any snow at the top?" It's quite scary really...

Anyway, Dave and Michael got a new route done today whilst I pottered about in the snow, a VII, 7 on Trident Buttress.