Cairn Gorm

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

After my over-exertions of the previous couple of days I didn't want to do much walking this day so I merely walked up the sixth highest mountain in Britain. My right leg had been aching so much I’d even contemplated not going for any walk, but I didn’t want to leave the Cairngorm Mountains without at least one more walk into some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Britain. I had originally planned to go up Ben Macdui, the second highest mountain in Britain on this day, but instead I opted for this relatively easy walk. The weather was also a lot cooler than it had been earlier in the week with low cloud and even a bit of rain at the beginning. I started late after a small lie-in going up to the Ryvoan Pass by a wonderful little path that I remembered from last time through the Glenmore Forest Park. This is not the main path, but is a narrow path that twists and turns around the trees above the pass, working with the natural landscape rather than bulldozing through it before descending steeply down to the pass. On the other side of the pass I followed my route of Monday down to the River Nethy where I turned off the main path and walked up the deserted valley of Strath Nethy.

This was a long, varied walk that was boggy at first, but later as the valley narrowed became deliciously rocky. When I eventually reached the end of the valley at ‘The Saddle’ stupendous views were revealed across Loch Avon and towards the cliffs that surround its western end. I came here four years ago on a wet day when I had also originally planned on going up Ben Macdui. One day I will complete this walk to Ben Macdui via Loch Avon, but this time I was defeated not only by the poor weather but by my own body. After lunch I climbed the steep never ending western slopes of ‘The Saddle,’ more than 400 metres all the way up to the summit of Cairn Gorm. The summit has a grand conical cairn, a weather station and a close line of piles of stones that lead all the way up to the summit from the mountain centre far below, but the greatest attraction of the top was the view across the Cairngorm Mountains.
Spurning the despoliation in Coire Cas from the Cairngorm Mountain Centre I headed west down the steep stony slope to the top of the Fiacaill a’ Choire Chais ridge. The view across the northern corries was awesome coupled with the sublime backdrop of Ben Macdui beyond partly covered in snow, and completely covered under cloud. The poor weather of the morning had lifted slightly to let me see this amazing view of the Cairngorm Mountains but Ben Macdui remained resolutely under cloud. Despite the temptation to venture as I had done four years ago onto the wondrous mountain plateau towards Ben Macdui I descended the ridge keeping my eyes on the gorgeous Coire an t-Sneachda to my left and away from the mess of the ski slopes in Coire Cas to my right. Whilst keeping to the top of the ridge all the way down I had a thoroughly delightful walk down with the great views over Loch Morlich always before me.

At the bottom of the ridge I went into the mountain centre to use their facilities before descending the wonderful Allt Mor Trail all the way down to the youth hostel. I really enjoyed this walk as the mountain scenery at the top was simply divine. The approach along Strath Nethy may have been long but it was quiet and clear of the crowds that often plague the top of Cairn Gorm. This was a good little walk, which was just what I needed after rather pushing myself recently. This was a walk in great mountain scenery that I have sadly ignored for four years. Cairn Gorm itself is not a particularly great mountain as it’s too scarred by the ski runs in Coire Cas, but the other northern corries of Cairn Gorm and the eastern corries of Ben Macdui more than make up for it. It’s tragic that it had taken me so long to return to this area, so I hope it will not take me so long to return again.

Cairn Toul and Braeriach

Tuesday 2nd June 2009

This was the third day running that I had done a long, exhausting walk and this time over the third, fourth and fifth highest mountains in Britain. By the end of this twelve-hour marathon I was really tired and hungry, and my right leg was beginning to ache. The last three days were taking their toil on me; in fact the heavy rucksack of the day before had probably done most of the damage and I should have rested on this day but I didn’t want to do that. I attempted to do this walk four years ago and turned back due to bad weather, so I wasn’t about to let a little strain stop me when the weather was so good. I started first thing in the morning and walked up the wonderful Allt Mor Trail that I remembered with such affection from when I was last there. The path climbs through a wonderful wooded valley that has been totally given over to nature with absolutely divine results. The walk was just a sheer joy, and an extremely relaxing way to start and end a walk.

Leaving the sylvan valley behind I crossed the heather-clad moorland below the Cairn Gorm corries and headed into the Chalamain Gap, a boulder-filled ravine that I found quite fun to pass through. Descending from the gap I dropped into the awesome Lairig Ghru, a deep pass through the Cairngorm Mountains that is quite simply one of the most amazing places in Scotland and deserving of its legendary reputation. Slowly, I climbed through the pass to almost three thousand feet, but the sheer sides of the cutting either side rose to mountains that are more than four thousand feet high. Reaching the summit of the pass was just as satisfying as reaching the top of a mountain, while the sight of the long descent that I would need to make all the way through the Lairig Ghru was particularly galling. The views down the other side of the pass were awe-inspiring as some of the highest mountains in Britain soared above me on either side while I followed the infant River Dee down to the Corrour Bothy.
From the small hut at the foot of Coire Odhar I climbed the relentlessly steep corrie to the bealach at the top and veering left I continued up to the stony top of the Munro, Devil's Point (Bod an Deamhain), where I had lunch. After all my effort going through the Lairig Ghru and then climbing the corrie, I was glad of the rest while gazing out over the stunning views across Glen Dee and the Cairngorm Mountains behind me which were quite spectacular from this prominent peak. Returning to the bealach I climbed the steep, tiring hillside opposite and eventually reached the south top of Cairn Toul, Stob Coire an t-Saighdeir. Rounding the top of the corrie, where I had incredible views down into the Lairig Ghru and across to the awesome mass of Ben MacDui, I reached the top of the Munro, Cairn Toul, the fourth highest mountain in Britain. A simple down and up brought me to my third Munro of the day, the Angel’s Peak (Sgor an Lochain Uaine), the fifth highest mountain in Britain. Until recently this wasn’t considered as a separate mountain, but in 1997 the SMC decided to award the Angel’s Peak with Munro status, and deservedly so as it is just as noble a peak as the slightly higher Cairn Toul.

After a descent to a saddle I climbed onto the fabulous plateau that summits at Braeriach. This spooky plateau is over four thousand feet high which makes for a unique environment with very little vegetation, patches of snow, and just a few landmarks such as the cairns on Carn na Criche and the Einich Cairn. Through patchy clouds I rounded the plateau on ground that was like walking on a beach, following the cairns around and up to the top of Braeriach, the third highest mountain in Britain, and a spectacular mountain in any weather. Stupefying cliffs beside the summit look across the enormous corrie of An Garbh Choire to the Angel’s Peak and Cairn Toul, though I could hardly see them through gaps in the clouds. This is a wonderful place that I visited four years ago but ventured no further due to bad weather. Despite the encroaching cloud as I approached Braeriach I had been lucky with the weather this time. It is curious that it had taken me four years to return to Braeriach when I have been back to Scotland many times since, but the mountains of the west coast of Scotland draw my attention better than the Cairngorm Mountains. These mountains west of the Lairig Ghru though are far too good to have been ignored for so long.

Hurrying down the northern ridge of Braeriach I eventually reached the Lairig Ghru again where I stopped for a rest, a drink, and some Kendal Mint Cake before, re-energised, I climbed back up through the Chalamain Gap and across the moor to the top of the Allt Mor Trail. The wonderful walk back through the woodland was marred by fatigue and hunger, but despite the ending this was still a fabulous, if long, walk over some quite sensational mountains.