free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
This is my first walk report, so please excuse me if I ramble too much!
I had done Glas Tulaichen (GT), Carn an Righ (CaR) and Beinn Lutharn Mhor (BLM) from Glen Shee the week before, and I decided at the time that I could come back and tackle Carn Bhac (CB) on its own. I had read some reports about these four Munro's, and it seemed that the approach to BLM from CB was tough going; steep and riddled with peat hags, so I decided to tag BLM onto my GT and CaR expedition and tackle CB separately.
So off I set from Aberdeen, at 7:30am and I arrived at the Inverey Car Park (FREE OF CHARGE, YAY!) at 9:10am. Quick change of shoes and off I went on my walk. I was following a gpx file that I found on another walk report (I'm so sorry, I can't find it again to credit the person!). I did this route in a clockwise direction - here it is:
The path begins on a very good track, here we are near the start looking up Glen Ey:
Before long, you take a right turn (it's very obvious) to ascend up to Carn nan Seileach - here's a photo of CB from about half way up to Carn nan Seileach:
The good track continues just beyond the mound that is marked as 731 SSW of Carn nan Seileach on the OS map, CB growing ever closer. There is a faint path along the side of Carn Creagach, but it soon disappears. I am not a big fan of 'making your own path', but as CB was so close this was fairly straight forward across the peat hags:
I turned to ascend up CB just north of the 777 marking on the OS map, heading WNW of this point towards the summit. There is no obvious path but the ground itself isn't too tricky to walk on. The top of CB wide, but I soon saw the cairn and the rock shelter too. The sunny conditions made for a sweaty walk, but the 360 view from the top was absolutely stunning. I eagerly looked out for the three munro's I had bagged in the previous week, here they are from south from CB:
I also spied what I think is the Beinn A' Ghlo range in the far distance to the SW, with some very atmospheric cloud present too. I have yet to do these ones, maybe they'll be next!
And to the north, the Ben Macdui and friends:
After a 20 minute stop for some food, I started to descend CB. The route looked fairly straight forward on the gpx file on the OS Map app, but the descent down the main buttress to the NE of the summit was tough going. I zigzagged my way down the two steep sections, I'll be completely honest... I would have been stuck without my poles! Here is a photo of the glen that I would take to get back to the car, there's no name on the OS map but the Allt Connie goes down it so I'll affectionately call it Glen Connie:
A look back towards CB, after the first steep descent:
A look down to the semi buttress (is this even a thing?) of CB:
On the floor of Glen Connie, looking back towards CB:
Once on the floor of the Glen, the path improves and there are some handy pieces of wood to cross some of the boggier sections. The sight of CB soon disappears as the glen curves round to the north and the car park is back in sight before you know it. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk today, even with no paths for probably about 1/3 of it.