A wee break in the Borders.

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The Motorway signs warned of heavy snow as we drove north after work on Friday heading for Symington. There was little sign of this when we eventually got up on Saturday so we headed out for a wander up a cloud covered Culter Fell. As we climbed steeply up Shin Fell it became clear that the forecast was right above a certain altitude. Visibility was poor and by the summit we were virtually in a whiteout. Susan has climbed this hill many times but even she wandered off course as we descended into the whiteness. Eventually having sank into several deep drifts we came out of the cloud, got back on track and returned to the car.
Sunday was another cloudy day so we headed out for the hills above Broughton. These are a little lower so we hoped they'd be cloud free. This wasn't the case but we had a great little round over Trahenna Hill, Hammer Head, Broomy Side, Green Law and Broughton Heights.
On Monday we headed out a little earlier for Peebles and Glensax. The hills were again cloud covered but we wanted to at least get to Dun Rig, at the head of the glen, via Kirkhope Law, Birkscairn Hill and Stake Law. This proved much more difficult than expected as from Birkscairn we were wading through deep snow in a near whiteout. Navigation was easy as we simply had to follow a fence line but breaking trail was very hard work. Susan made a great job of this!!!!! Having reached the top of Dun Rig we decided to bale out and head down into the glen. This required a bit of careful navigation but we were soon 'marching' back to the car and a wander around Peebles.

 A cold Birkscairn Hill.


Pleased to have reached Dun Rig.


Having a rest at the desserted settlement at the head of Glensax.


Today we wanted a bit of exercise before heading down the road to Cumbria. Culter Fell looked great from the bedroom window so was an obvious choice. Unfortunately by the time we parked up at Birthwood the cloud had rolled in so the ascent was a repeat of Saturday only with a little less snow above 550m.

Culter Fell - near the summit.


Susan at home in the Border hills - Culter Glen.


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