Cairn Toul to Braeriach Traverse!

[macdonald_ewan1983]

My brother and I set off, together, from Perth around 17:45 on Tuesday evening (22nd July 2014).

We had planned on walking in to Bob Scott's bothy near Derry Lodge, and having read of the infamous parties that have taken place there we greatly regret our choice, but decided to press on to Corrour Bothy to give us a head start the next day. The walk through what I think must be the Forest of Mar (?) that took us to the Luibeg Burn and across was beautiful! Great crossing stones just south of the bridge and an atmospheric wee trail tight up through the trees to the open hillside beyond.

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There was one guy camping on the northern slopes of Creagan nan Gabhar and the bothy came into view around fifteen minutes later as we rounded the corner and drew parallel to the River Dee. We had the bothy to ourselves but there were around twelve Dutch walkers camped together outside - we came here to avoid the temptations of Bob Scott's Bong-Hoose! Nonetheless, a few whiskys later we unrolled our mats and settled into the immaculately clean bothy - very impressed!

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Following five hours lying down (sleep did not come into it!) we both awoke at 04:30 to the feeling of shedding a second skin as the sleeping bags we were in had melted onto our skin such was the heat of the night! Craig went to test the facilities (this time he did not find a surprised Dutch girl sitting inside feverishly clutching the door handle trying to keep it shut - the creep!) while I filled the kettle from the burn. Porridge and coffee down we sweated our way up to Devil's Point, starting at 06:00 we dumped out bags at the bealach at 06:45 and were back at them having bagged the peak around 07:15.
The weather was stunning, just what we hoped for! Picking our way over the rocks, quite time consuming up over the top en route to Cairn Toul, the early morning clouds were blowing up out of the Lairig Ghru over the mountains, atmospheric!

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We had a leisurely walk over Angel's Peak and after that the scenery got really dramatic! Huge cliffs, a distant bothy, rolling plateaus! The Braeriach plateau was like another world, I have done a few in the Cairngorms before but I guess this is the real deal in that area, I was glad to have such great weather for it!

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We ate some pasta by the Wells of Dee and refilled our bottles from it - clear and cool, something excellent about this route was that we set off with 2 litres each but managed to drink a further 4 litres each from filling from plentiful fresh water sources - crucial when it's pushing 26 degrees!

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We got the Braeriach summit at 11:50 and pressed on a bit looking for a reasonable point to drop down into the Lairig Ghru - nothing looked attractive, a bit steep, and we were in no hurry at all so decided to take advantage of the sunshine and long days and went to tick off another thing I had hoped to do for a while so walked the excellently maintained path to where the hill drops down opposite Lurcher's Crag (cannot believe folk climbs this in Winter! not for me!!!) into the Lairig Ghru and walked it back to Corrour. Picked up our camping stuff and the stove from the bothy and started what can only be described as a gruelling and crippling walk out to Derry Lodge and on to Linn of Dee. Merciless!!!
It was an absolute pleasure to get back to the car and took me around 30 minutes to cool my feet down bandage the raw skin and congratulate ourselves on an unforgettable night and day deep in the Cairngorms!
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*For those thinking of this route we didn't push it but didn't take it too easy either, had several lunch stops and wee breaks for water and the breakdown is this:

Linn of Dee - Corrour Bothy = 2 hours 20 minutes
Corrour Bothy to Braeriach Summit, including the 3 munros in between = 6 hours
Braeriach Summit to Linn of Dee car park (via start of Lairig Ghru just north of Lurcher's Crag and Corrour).

Cheers! Ewan.

[mamoset]

I get an error message when i try to look at your photos. Was up these Munro's at the end of May, hope you enjoyed them as much as i did.

Chris

[prog99]

Try here - http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/ewancruz/library/CAIRNGORMS%2023RD%20JULY%202014?sort=3&page=1

Not my pics but seem to work

[Hill-loving lady]

I did this in early June...no viz...dog'spaws sore by end...but great sense of achievement given the snow hanging on