So I fancied a Boxing Day test; but not at the MCG. I also had a double hundred in mind.

0450 the alarm went off; I stumbled out of bed into the boots and socks and jackets lying in wait for me; grabbed the seasonal sandwiches of turkey, brie and cranberry. 

And off to get Baz (accompanied by Herbie one last time  - it's become apparent that Herbie is too labour intensive for Baz and indeed any of his family who have also tried to integrate him, so it looks like he's going back to the rescue charity to try again. In some ways he's a nice enough dog, but he is sooo much work. Even as the day unfolds I find myself exasperated by him...) and then to hers. Thankfully her lad has arrived home at 0510 ahead of the 0600 deadline, so she is also able to come out to play. (He was to mind the lass until her dad came to pick her up later in the morning)

3 hours later we're in Fort William; snow and frost in plentiful supply as we weave north up the A82 and after a quick coffee and a bonus cheap sandwich we drive down Glen Nevis and are greeted by lovely view of a whispy cloud covered summit of Stob Ban; our first target of the day.

Boots on and out and it's bone chillingly cold, but soon we've worked up a heat as we slowly climb up and away from the car park. A strong contrast between the browns and oranges and yellows of below slowly gives way to the black crags, white snow and blue blue sky.

It's not a great day, but there's enough to encourage us that we'll get some views as we head on round. 

A couple of hours in and we stop heading south and turn westward and up the increasingly steep and increasingly narrow edge up which we must go. As usual once you get there it's fine, but we're easily distracted by the Aonach Eagach picked out in silhouette, cloud drifting in and out of the pinnacles. Ben Nevis is shrouded, Sgurr a Mhaim and the Devils Ridge however are looking magnificent as the sun begins to dominate. 

We hit Stob Ban and claim summit #1. That's my 199th Munro. My aim was to get 200 by the end of 2017, so across the way we can see Mullach Nan Coirean; another couple of miles, not much descent / reascent; just a couple more tricky narrow sections to negotiate, plenty time to get across and nail it. 

So off we slither, down the back of Stob Ban and onwards. Now it's becoming picture postcard beautiful. Sky and snow and summits all around (sadly not much in the way of sea; that side is still a little obscured). As gorgeous a day as I've seen in a while. 

Everyone is in fine spirits and we smile our way around the edge of the massive corrie that gives the mountain its name. Around 1403 I reached my 200th Munro summit. Only another 82 to get for the compleat set. (!)

Again there is clag at the summit and as we sup soup (lentil; hers, delicious) the snow starts to fall. Heavily.  Only a day late. It lasts for half an hour or so, by which time we're picking out way back down another knife edge and as the snow abates, the view across to the rest of the Mamores is lit up by the low afternoon sun; the moon above in the blue sky. We had fabulous light for large parts of the day but the late afternoon was stunning. 

Slowly and for the other 2 painfully we edged closer to the car, the snow line crossed, then the tree line and finally onto a forest road and back to the car. I wouldn't have liked to leave it much longer; day light pretty much vanished in the time it took to get the boots off and into the car.

Barry chucking somewhere near Onich aside, the journey was fine; mostly a tired peace punctuated by occasional burst of chat relating to whatever song randomly came onto the CD player at any given moment. 

Barry was dropped at 2030; back to hers for dinner (salmon and avocado starter; bubble and squeak and leftovers for main) before finally getting home well after 10. A long day. 

Too tired to post any photos, I washed, put washing on and keeled over; asleep fairly swiftly. 

(A couple of extras of the day; more on Facebook. The photo is Barry and 'her'  with Stob Ban in the background; as we headed across towards Mullach Nan Coirean; following the  edge of the corrie as we went)