Cairn Gorm - with the boys

[malky_c]

Munros: Cairn Gorm
Date walked: 27/07/2011
Time taken: 4 hours
Distance: 6.5 km
Ascent: 630m
Weather: Hot and sunny

Today was apparently one of the hottest of the year, with Aviemore being one of the hottest places in the country . A surprise visit from my nephews had me thinking about where to take them. Cameron really wants to go up Ben Nevis, so I thought Cairn Gorm would be a good test for him. Proof of the temperature was the fact that cars were parked up on the verges for hundreds of meters either side of the Loch Morlich car park. I've never seen it that busy before, and this was just midweek!

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My original plan had been to take Cameron up the Fiacaill Coire Sneachda ridge on his own, but when Jamie decided to come as well, decided that I wasn't comfortable supervising both of them at the same time. So instead we went up the easier Fiacaill a Choire Chais. Started walking round into Coire Sneachda to avoid the ski lifts, then got onto the ridge from the west.

Cameron and Jaimie head up the Coire Sneachda path:


Coire Sneachda:


Carn Lochan:


It was the first time I'd been up this way in non-winter conditions, so I was surprised how varied it was. Plenty of boulders and outcrops to play about on on the way up. We had a couple of stops for food and messing about on this section. The final rise looked steep, but the boys were up it in no time, proving (as usual) that it was lack of constant interest rather than lack of energy that caused us to fail on previous hills.

Fiacaill a Choire Chais:


Cameron on some boulders:


Coire Sneachda again:


Ptarmigan - don't know how we got this close without scaring it off:


Back down to Loch Morlich:


Zoom in on crags in Coire Sneachda. Is this Pygmy Ridge?


The pull up from the plateau to the summit of Cairn Gorm was slightly more tedious, but we were there soon enough. I was surprised how warm it was on the top - having experienced lots of cold easterly wind over the last few days, I thought that would keep temperatures down. As I had expected, the boys were more interested in the man-made than the natural, and spent some time playing about on the summit weather station.

On the plateau. Over to Derry Cairngorm:


West to Carn Lochan:


The cairn of point 1141m:


East across Beinn Meadhoinn and Beinn a Bhuird:


West - Cairn Toul and Braeriach:


Causing mayhem on the top:


North across the summit:


Cameron ran down to the Ptarmigan cafe in no time at all, while Jamie and I walked at a more leisurely pace (his feet were tired). Unluckily for us, the cafe had just shut, meaning no ice cream. Since the boys wanted to watch the train enter the tunnel near the top station from close up, we took the White Lady run down. This followed the Funicular all the way to the middle station, where we joined the vehicle track up Coire Cas.

Funicular - ascending train was empty, unsurprisingly:


Jaimie gets flattened into the piste:


We left at 5:30, as I was keen to get back down to the glen before the ski road shut at 6pm. I thought this might be for the annual soapbox race, which I've seen before at this time of year, but there was no sign of anything.

A good afternoon out, which the boys enjoyed a lot. A bit frustrating to be heading up Cairn Gorm for the 10th time by the standard route, with all of those other bits around that I want to explore, but the boys certainly proved their ability, meaning I should be able to take them on longer walks in the future. It was also their first Munro.

[Graeme D]

Great stuff malky. And a far better day up there than I got less than a week previously. I was wondering all the way thru this if it was their first Munro but the answer came right at the end. That'll be them hooked now! When can we expect a 4 day wild camping Cairngorms circuit report????

[Border Reiver]

Nice to see more quality Cairngorm pics. It's good to see youngsters enjoying hillwalking.
We used to camp for 2 weeks every August as a family at Glenmore camp ground in the 60's and always looked forward to a family walk from the camp site to the top of Cairngorm and back. The path used to follow the Allt Mhor so far, then up near the zig-zags of the old ski road, passing by Clach Bharraig and up An t-Aonach to the summit. My first walk up there was when I was about 7 & I loved it. On the other hand, my youngest sister hated it and tried every way she could think of not to go. At every rise she would ask .."is that the top?" and get told "we're nearly there now".