This particular weekend was turning out a busy photography weekend. After the amazing aurora evening on the Friday, some ‘last minute’ plans during the week, opened up an opportunity for my first winter wild camp with one of my sons, when my youngest brother had a few days spare and was coming up to Scotland in his camper for the weekend. We made a decision to meet up south of Glen Coe with the objective of climbing Beinn a Chrulaiste (857m) and camping overnight there. The views from the top were expected to be superb and a great photographic opportunity (in the right weather conditions) for sunset and sunrise.

My son and I headed off on Saturday morning in very cold conditions, fully kitted out with rucksacks and gear for the overnight - minus the tents left at home as my brother was going to supply them on this occasion.

The journey to Glencoe had some stunning moments, and was a taste of how the rest of the weekend was going to turn out. As we got close to Fort Augustus we passed the loch in beautiful conditions. Frost laden trees and boats moored in the totally still loch. Amazing views.

The winter wonderland continued as we headed west - the surrounding countryside was almost like an infra-red scene.

Driving up Glencoe, was a picture of freezing conditions. We parked up temporarily to brace the cold and head back down the road to get a record of the trees and the views…. it was a totally frozen landscape!

Continuing on, we arrived at the parking location to meet Julian in a heavily frost laden scene! The temperature had been hovering around -4 degrees C on the way here - and we were going to be camping up a mountain in these conditions…. the mind boggles!

Kitted up we headed off in the misty conditions down the road with our heavy rucksacks, to find the path up the mountain. As we ascended up the shoulder of the mountain we met a few hikers who were on their way down, and were told we’d soon be above the cloud. The views of Buachaille Etive Mor started to appear through the mist - and it wasn’t long until the glen below started to open up as the mist and cloud lifted.

When we reached Stob Beinn a Chruslaiste (639m), which was a summit part way up the ascent, we had great views east and west, and seeing the long ascent to the top of Beinn a Chrulaiste quite a way ahead of us, we decided to pitch tents where we were. The perspective for photos was better than it would have been higher up and further away from the glen.

As the sun got lower in the sky towards sunset, the atmosphere started to change and brought some great colours. Also we noticed cloud coming down over the main peak - so it turned out to be a good decision to camp where we did. Eventually the cloud engulfed us as well, and the clear skies were no more.

With darkness descending between 4-5pm there was a long night ahead, and the challenges of the cold temperatures and sleep made themselves very evident! The temperature got down to around -6 degrees C and may well have been lower.

Later in the evening, after some broken sleep, my son put his head out the tent and noticed that the cloud had gone and it was a starry night - so without hesitation it was back on with the warm jackets and hats and gloves and out to record the amazing views under starlight with the landscape lit up by the moon.

Soon it was back to the tent to try and get warm again in the sleeping bags.

Following a broken night’s sleep, the alarm eventually went off - we had made it through the freezing night!!! And the views we beheld as we got up for sunrise, made us realise the reason we had put ourselves through the level of discomfort the night before in such wintry, freezing conditions.

Not only were the skies still clear, but there was a full cloud inversion over Rannoch Moor.

Here’s a few of the sunrise photos:

To the west the skies started to turn pink and the mountain tops got clipped with the rising sun.

The moon was still up … the conditions were simply perfect (just very cold).

As we continued to take photos of the amazing views before us, the cloud inversion slowly made its way down the glen towards Glencoe. The excitement and feeling of awe were tangible, realising what a privilege it was to be there at that particular time with such incredible conditions. Included below is a photo showing our wild camp location. What a spot!!

As the sun rose higher in the sky and low misty cloud kept blowing in down the glen, we were even treated with a Brocken spectre as I looked out towards Ben Nevis in the background, along with fog bows…