The View West From Cairn Gorm
So, having been subjected to wind, snow, hail
and locusts on our previous visit to the Cairngorms in May (remember May?),
Jennifer decided it was time to return and play catch-up with the peaks that
were denied us then. Matt also came along and so did Jon…nearly….before work
commitments forced a change in his plans.
This time the weather played ball and we
achieved everything we set out to do which was no mean feat given the distances
and climbing involved! Despite
shortening days, some early starts enabled us to finish all the mountains in
some sort of daylight and with nothing more than a few light showers to contend
with.
West of the Lairig Ghru
Our big day came early in the week – the
weather determined it would be so! An
early start from the Sugar Bowl car park half-way up the ski road saw us
traversing below the Northern Corries and through the Chalamain Gap in less
than an hour.
Picking Our Way Through the Chalamain Gap
After crossing the N
entrance to the Lairig Ghru, we started the serious climbing up the excellent
path that leads on to Sron na Lairige.
This whaleback ridge gives great views down into the red screes of the Lairig
Ghru as well as rapidly increasing vistas over Speyside. In just under 4hrs, we were traversing around
the rim of impressive Coire Bhrochain to stand on the 3rd highest
mountain in the UK: Braeriach (1296m;
brindled upland).
This is a fabulous summit and a great
mountain – a huge granite dome that has been
deeply cut by impressively steep and majestic corries. I never get tired of visiting Braeriach and
it always repays the effort. One day, I
will dispense with the summit and just spend the time exploring all the
corries! I’ve been saying that for a few
years now mind…..
Onward from Braeriach, we circled the mighty
An Garbh Choire (the rough corrie),
probably the largest corrie in the land.
On the way, we stepped over the River Dee – less than a few hundred
metres from its source! Then we spied
the first of many reindeer we were to see on the plateau over the next few days. A strange sight at first if you’re not
expecting it - but they do look very much at home, which of course they are!
An hour from Braeriach, we were climbing easy
slopes to grab our 2nd Munro of the day: Sgor an Lochain Uaine (1258m; peak of the little green loch). Also known as the Angel’s Peak, this shapely
cone gives great views across An Garbh Choire and across the Lairig Ghru to the
main Cairngorm plateau.
A short drop from the summit and a similar
re-ascent up loose boulders brought us to Munro No 3, the UK’s 4th
highest mountain: Cairn Toul (1291m; hill
of the barn). This is where the
fatigue really starts to bite, compounded as it is by the sobering knowledge
that wherever you’ve left the car, it will be a long way from here!
Cairn Toul & the Corrour Bothy
So it was with increasing weariness that we
circled the rim of Coire an t-Saighdeir (corrie
of the soldier), and descended to the An Diollaid col before climbing up 100m
to our last mountain of the day: The Devil’s Point (1004m; bod an deamhain – devil’s penis).
Devil's Point
Despite its modest height, this is a great viewpoint
– both northwards up the Lairig Ghru and south down the valley of the infant
Dee and across the deep cleft of Glen Geusachan, immediately below you.
All we had to do was descend into Coire
Odhar, pay our respects to the Corrour Bothy, pause for afternoon tea at the
footbridge over the Dee, and then walk the entire length of the Lairig
Ghru! This may seem tiring. That’s
because it is! The walk through this
amazing pass does of course involve a climb of 300m up to it’s own 835m summit. More of an issue though for tired feet is the
boulder field that inconveniently straddles that summit. A pity, given that elsewhere, the path is
very good.
Eventually, the Chalamain Gap re-appeared and
we gingerly picked our way across the wet rocks in diminishing daylight and
increasing fatigue to reach the car and win our day off, which we gratefully
claimed the following day! We had walked
over 37Km and climbed 4 big Munros – however you do these hills, you can expect
to record similar statistics.
Cairn Gorm & Bynack More
Following a most agreeable day off, we
ventured upwards on the 3rd day having set ourselves the more modest
target of these 2 conveniently placed Munros.
We made the most of the high start from the Cairn Gorm ski car park and
took the ‘Windy Ridge’ path past the Ptarmigan restaurant and up on to the
familiar summit cairn of Cairn Gorm (1245m;
blue hill).
Climbing Out From the Saddle with Loch Avon Beyond.
After a brief pause in the cold wind, we were
soon striding down the gentle E slopes of the mountain, breaking cloud just
before we intercepted the scratchy path that leads down to the Saddle (807m) at the head of Strath Nethy.
Billy No-Mates!
Here we encountered a rather odd-looking
black reindeer clearly in need of some friends, before climbing over the easy
slopes of A’ Choinneach. This grassy
traverse was enhanced somewhat by the sight of a large herd of red deer as well
as 2 further reindeer! We paused to
inspect the huge Barns of Bynack (always worth a detour) before climbing N to
our 2nd Munro of the day: Bynack More (1090m; large cap).
Rather than re-trace our steps, we elected to
descend N down the clear path that crosses lots of open country before
descending to cross the Nethy at the Bynack Stable. A welcome pause for refreshment here set up
us nicely for the always enjoyable traverse of the Ryvoan Pass past the little
green lochan and back through the pines to Glenmore Lodge and a cleverly
pre-positioned car!
Ben Macdui , Derry Cairngorm & Beinn Mheadhoin
Ben Macdui
Our last day’s climbing was no modest affair
encompassing as it did, 3 big Munros and a traverse in and out of the Loch Avon
basin! We left the ski car park and
headed into a viscous headwind up into Coire an t-Sneachda. Fortunately, the wind eased inside the coire
and had all but gone at the top of the goat track as we climbed up on to the
plateau. Here, the excellent path led us
around the SE slopes of Cairn Lochan and past Lochan Buidhe where we saw our
largest reindeer herd of the week. Soon
we were climbing in thickening cloud up the easy slopes that lead to the summit
of the UK’s 2nd highest mountain: Ben Macdui (1309m; MacDuff’s Hill).
Shelter Stone Crag
A few snow bunting and a couple of fellow
walkers were all that we saw today and we were soon heading E down towards Loch
Etchachan, the highest loch for its size in the country. Just before reaching the loch, we turned S
and picked up a good path that led us to the boulder field that clutters the
summit cone of Derry Cairngorm (1155m;
blue peak of the oak thicket). This
summit too was in cloud and didn’t invite a lingering stop so we re-traced our
steps and stopped for lunch beside Loch Etchachan.
Beinn Mheadhoin From Bynack More
Our penultimate climb of the week proved to
be a 260m haul up on to the tor-strewn summit of Beinn Mheadhoin (1182m; middle hill). This peak couldn’t be better named sitting as
it does right in the heart of the Cairngorms and demanding some effort to reach
it!
Still, we were elated with our last summit of
the week and the climb on to the large summit tor was fun, if a little tricky,
in the high wind. We headed back across
the mountain’s broad summit ridge before descending down into the Loch Avon
basin past the Shelter Stone - and more reindeer! A short stop on a sandy beach at the head of
the loch presaged one final climb: 410m up Coire Raibert and across the Cairn
Gorm plateau one last time before descending into Coire Cas and back to the
car.
Loch Avon
It was a huge achievement for Jennifer &
Matt, climbing as they did 10 Munros (many of them very big) and covering
almost 100Km of mountain paths. Jennifer
is well on course to reach 100 Munros now this year and Matt is not far behind
having passed the 50 mark on this long hard week.
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