A few days battling high winds on the Cairngorm
plateau, but ultimately successful and, as always, very enjoyable.
Cairn
Gorm & Ben Macdui
South Towards Beinn Mheadhoin & Derry Cairngorm
The maximum wind speed we experienced was 47
knots which was hard work, but just manageable.
Having checked out the conditions on Cairn Gorm itself, we managed to
fight our way across the plateau to Ben Macdui where guests for lunch included
a hungry snow bunting!
Then it was down to Loch Etchachan and a
challenging crossing of its outflow before descending into the Loch Avon basin
past the Shelter Stone. Negotiating an
in-spate Feith Buidhe took time and patience whilst we detoured some way
upstream to find a safe crossing place.
Then it was sharply up into Coire Raibeirt and
back over the plateau to Spot Height 1141 before descending into Coire Cas and
returning to the car.
Loch Avon & Cairn Gorm
Although the
distance and time were relatively modest for a Cairngorm day, those hours spent
battling the high gusty winds sapped a lot of energy out of tired bodies and
the effect was of a much longer day.
Braeriach
Lighter winds made for a more enjoyable day on
the UK’s 3rd highest peak.
Starting from the Sugar Bowl car park on the Cairn Gorm ski road, we
joined the visitors to the reindeer paddock (briefly!) before traversing through
the Chalamain Gap to the northern portal of the Lairig Ghru.
From here, the excellent recently upgraded path
eased the pull up the Sron na Lairige before finally entering cloud at
1100m. This denied us any views down
into Coire Bhrochain or across the mighty An Garbh Choire, but Braeriach still
remains my favourite Cairngorm mountain even though I have yet to return just to explore it properly rather than just reach the summit!
Conditions were not conducive to continuing
around An Garbh Choire to Cairn Toul so we returned the same way, happy with
our lot and not feeling at all short-changed.
You rarely do in the Cairngorms!
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