The Munro Fionn Bheinn is a fairly straightforward mountain and not too far from the Scottish Highlands city of Inverness. I walked the Munro in 2017 as part of my first Munro Round. Last year, I did a rewarding solo hike of Fionn Bheinn and the neighbouring Fiona Meall a’ Chaorainn. So, when a sudden dump of snow arrived this month, I chose the mountain near Achnasheen for a ski tour with my friend D.
To be honest, the snow depth was not optimum and there was plenty of heather bashing on the ascent and descent but we still managed to ski almost from roadside to roadside.
We both enjoyed the challenge of the skin up , following the line of a track to start with and then, higher up skinning uphill on a rugged terrain of deeper snow. We passed a group of four skiers who planned to do a similar route as us.
As we approach the trig marking the 933m summit we bumped into a couple of walkers and then, as we skied off the sop, we saw two other skiers in the distance.
However, the cloud had come in so our view was a bit claggy. As we descended, we were delighted by a few pockets of decent snow for some enjoyable turns.
Visibility wasn’t great though and the lower we skied, the more heather and rocks we needed to negotiate. With a great deal of hard work and squealing leg muscles, we skied almost all the way back downhil.
One bonus was we didn’t see any ice.
With another 10cms of snow, this mountain would be perfect for skiing.