Glas Maol and Creag Leacach

[jgregor]

Parked in a lay-by on the Glenshee road, just south of Devil's Elbow and the ski centre. It was a couple of days before the big heat wave, but it was still promising to be a warm day. The road is near it's highest there, and there was quite a view even before setting off.

View from the car park, south down the A93

We followed the path south a short way, then turned east to start up the Leacann Dubh ridge. We lost the correct smaller path briefly, following an unmarked ATV track which was clearly heading down the other side of the ridge. Realising the mistake, we turned north and followed a small burn uphill to it's spring - a matter of a couple of hundred meters or so. Just beyond this we found our path again.

From the ridge we had a good view of the two Munros above the ski centre - Carn Aosda and The Cairnwell. We climbed those a couple of months back in thick fog. We were seeing more of them now from the other side of the glen!

The Cairnwell and Càrn Aosda with the ski centre between

We passed a modern-looking bothy a bit over half way up the ridge.

A bothy

I had planned to take a path from the ridge straight over to Glas Maol, missing out the summit of Meall Odhar, with it's ski tows. However, once we reached the fork, we decided on following the main path up to that summit instead, as it looked a better path and wouldn't add that much to the distance. Only realised later that this enabled us to claim a bonus Munro Top - the first of two, either side of the main Munro summits.

Following the ski tows up Meall Odhar

Looking back down the glen towards Spittal of Glenshee

Looking north from the summit of Meall Odhar

From here we continued down the east side of Meall Odhar to the bealach between it and Glas Maol. There are many springs around that point. Those north of the path are tributaries of Clunie Water, which runs into the River Dee and out into the North Sea at Aberdeen. South of the path they run down to the Shee Water, which becomes the Ericht, joins the Isla and ultimately the Tay, flowing into the North Sea past Dundee. Sources just meters apart ending up some 70 miles apart. Not quite on the scale of the watershed in the States which decides if a raindrop ends up in the Atlantic or the Pacific, but fascinating none the less - to me anyway!

A steep zig-zagging path took us up onto the fairly flat, broad summit of Glas Maol.

Glas Maol

The summit is marked by a large cairn/shelter and a trig point, built of stone rather than the usual concrete.

Trig point and cairn atop Glas Maol

Looking south over Creag Leacach

The route south-west from Glas Maol is gentle and easy-going - a marked difference to the way up.

Easy path down Glas Maol towards Creag Leacach

Reaching the bealach between Glas Maol and Creag Leacach we found a sturdy stone shelter, marked on the OS map at 933m. The entrance was just big enough for me to fit through, and it was pretty cramped inside. Though no doubt a god-send during a winter blizzard.

Shelter, at 933m on the OS map, in the bealach between the two Munros

From here the path became more rocky the further up Creag Leacach we went.

Approaching Creag Leacach

Tributaries of the Isla descending from Glas Maol and flowing past Creag Leacach

Rocky ascent up Creag Leacach

Nearly there...

Much scrambling on sometimes loose rocks led us to the summit cairn - difficult to make out on all the surrounding rock!

Summit cairn (a small pile of rocks on a huge pile of rocks)

Looking back to Glas Maol

The way down, via minor summit of Creag Leacach

Continuing south-west, we took in the SW top of Creag Leacach - considered a Munro Top in its own right - another unexpected bag!

View from SW top

Continuing on down, the terrain became grassy again. We turned north and headed down the west side of Meall Gorm until we reached the Allt Coire a' Bhathaich burn

A corner

Heading down the western slope of Creag Leacach towards Meall Gorm

View from a rock - Meall Odhar and Glas Maol

Leacann Dubh - the ridge we'd ascended by

Following Allt Coire a' Bhathaich downstream

We crossed the burn and followed it north-west downstream back to to the parking area.

Back to the car park