The drifts were higher in Strathspey than Mr Frostie!
In case you were wondering as you passed by at the stone house of Duneen at the Slochd, this giant was helping to mark the 45th anniversary of the worst winter storm in living memory.
Oh... and so was the snowman.
This weekend Victor Sandilands will mark the horrendous day in 1978 where he and his workmates put their lives on the line for others’ sake.
The builder got back from a family trip to Perth in Australia recently and plunged more than 30 degrees Centigrade.
“I had suddenly fallen from a balmy 35C holiday into sub-zero Strathspey,” he shivered.
To keep warm, the time-served builder – formerly one of the legendary Donegal Tunnel Tigers – swapped his trusty pick and shovel for a snow scoop to create Mr Frostie, to send a photo back to grandchildren Lachlan and Kaitlyn Gill.
“He’s melting now, but the photo will show them what a real winter’s like! But there was never anything like that winter of ’78.
“On Saturday, January 28, it started snowing when we went to work at 7.30am, on our way to the concrete culvert under the new A9 at the Germans Head.
“As the conditions got worse by 10am, we put what tools we could find in the tea hut and headed back to our caravans and mobile homes at Tarmacs Camp on Station Road in Carrbridge.
“By 5pm the police came knocking on our doors looking for volunteers to go to rescue stranded motorists and a diabetic woman, between Carrbridge and Slochd.”
His creased copy of ‘Tarmac World’ from February 1978 records the incredible story of the mercy mission he and his team were involved in while building the A9.
It recounts: “A six-man team from Construction’s snowbound Carrbridge road contract in Inverness-shire battled through drifts up to 18 feet high to reach their colleagues who became stranded on a mercy mission in the worst conditions known in the Highlands for 30 years.
“Bridges agent Ernie Boardman, site engineer Derek Hewson, timekeeper Dave Whitelaw, ganger Victor Sandilands and storekeeper Willie Healey set off in two Land Rovers with a D6 ‘dozer accompanied by a police Land Rover...
“After eight hours inching through snow drifts they fought their way back, picking up 15 motorists and passengers stranded in a fearsome blizzard which cut visibility to nil and created walls of snow as high as telegraph poles.”
Only after huddling together for five brutal hours were they finally rescued.
“We got back to our caravans 6.30pm the next day. Wives and children were all delighted to see us back safe!”
