Tuesday 31st May 2016
After spending the night in the lovely Ruigh Aiteachain Bothy, I decided that I would spend a second night in the beautiful valley of Glen Feshie and visit some of the Munros in the area and come surprisingly close to the point where I’d camped the previous night. A short walk down the valley brought me over the Allt Choire Chaoil and to a crossroads where a stalker’s landrover track headed up into the hills following the burn. This provided me with a relatively easy, if mundane, route into the mountains that did not feel all that easy as I toiled up the steep track stopping frequently to admire the view, and catch my breath. When the track reached the top of a ridge overlooking the awesome Coire Garbhlach I turned left, off the track, and followed a narrow path up to the top of Meall nan Sleac where tremendous views could be seen up and down Glen Feshire, into the corrie and at the banks of cloud billowing down from the hilltops below clear blue skies.
Soon after rejoining the landrover track, I plunged into the clouds and followed the track up onto the gently rolling hilltop where vast distances would be seen if the clouds were not obscuring my view. Following the track around to the right I headed south across the featureless terrain eventually turning right up a gradual ascent to the summit cairn of Mullach Clach a’ Bhlàir. Just as I reached the top of the Munro, the cloud lifted and I was afforded with extensive views across the surrounding mountains and the peat bog moor behind me where the Munro is merely a slight rise on an otherwise featureless landscape. Beyond the moor the Braeriach plateau that I had failed to climb the previous day lay reassuringly clad in cloud while I had clear views all around me and in glorious sunshine. It had been a while since I had last been to the top of a Munro and it felt great to be back and I was grateful to be reminded of what I had been missing for the last two years.
I was invigorated to climb more Munros, so I headed across the peat moor with the view opening out before me back onto the landrover track and following its meandering course across the hilltop while enjoying the benefit that the track was giving me of an easy walk across the boggy terrain of Am Mòine Mhór heading towards the Cairngorm Mountains. Eventually, at the top of a slight rise, I turned left off the track and followed a path that began to climb towards Carn Bàn Mór while the high plateau of Braeriach and Cairn Toul that had been my aborted goal the previous day obstinately clung onto its clouds. Since I was at that moment walking under clear blue skies this made me very happy and eased the frustrations that I had felt about the previous day. If I had stayed at Loch Einich, then I would not have been able to do this great walk across these hills in this fabulous weather.
At the top of the path I stopped at a cairn and had my lunch in the fabulous weather before turning north passing over the top of Carn Bàn Mór and across the saddle to the top of the Munro, Sgor Gaoith. This is the mountain that lies to the west of Loch Einich where I had spent the night the day before. Precipitous cliffs fall steeply down to the loch and now the place beside the loch where I had pitched my tent two days previously was a tiny speck far below. As I stood at the summit, the high mountains on the other side of Loch Einich finally shed themselves of the clouds that they had been clinging to revealing the unique upland plateau that houses some of the highest mountains in Scotland. With clear views now in all directions I was mesmerised and took many pictures eastwards across the deep valley with Loch Einich at its bottom towards the mountain tops of Stob Coire an Lochain and Carn na Criche on the Braeriach plateau.
It was very windy at the summit of Sgor Gaoith and generally very cold at the top of these hills despite the sunny weather, and it has to be said that the weather was better the day before even though the day had started very poorly. The cold weather actually made it more pleasant to walk as it meant that while at the top of these mountains I didn’t get too hot and sweaty. I could easily be sheltered from the wind at the summit of Sgor Gaoith by descending a short distance westwards and sitting there gazing out across the less dramatic western slopes either side of Strath Spey I was in awe of what lay before me: the stunning view that can be seen from the top of a high mountain. I felt that I had been away from the top of a Scottish mountain for far too long and I didn’t want to walk away from this extensive mountain scene. The dramatic Braeriach plateau had held my attention while I was taking my pictures, but it was the more extensive western views that had made me stop and stare.
Eventually I tore myself away and made my way back over Carn Bàn Mór to the cairn where I had had my lunch, and there I turned right onto a heavily manufactured footpath that took me all the way down the mountainside. I remember more than ten years ago criticising heavily manufactured paths, but as I have got older I have begun to appreciate them, even the stalker’s landrover track from earlier in the day, and especially this path at the end of the day that seemed to have deteriorated slightly making for a rougher, more engaging walk. The stunning western views continued to hold my attention as I slowly descended the path until I finally reached the bottom of the valley at the end of the road through Glen Feshie. I had passed this way the previous day so now I retraced my steps up the fabulous valley back to the bothy. Even though the mountains were not the best in the area, particularly the first Munro, I still had a great day walking on good paths under clear blue skies up two Munros that I had never visited before.
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