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My first walk report (please go easy on me!). The MWIS forecast was looking near perfect for the area, so I thought it would be mad not to give the White Mounth Circuit a go.
I set off from the Glen Muick car park at around 0700, having spent the night there. (NB. the upper car park ticket machine took my money without issuing a ticket, so I had to buy another from the lower car park being double charged unfortunately!)
I followed the track up to Lochnagar, this was the most testing part of the whole trip. It comprised of a gradual uphill walk, increasing in steepness, that carried on up to the summit. The pristine conditions of blue skies and no breeze, whilst being picturesque, led to the midges being out in full force. Throughout the ascent I was mauled repeatedly, it was like being set on by thousands of microscopic XL Bullies. I quickly had to net out etc and began jogging at points uphill with my full pack to try and outrun them.
Having reached the plateau the view made the ordeal worth it
I then continued on to the summit of Lochnagar, followed by Càrn a' Choire Bhòidheach and Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr in what felt like fairly quick succession. Little ascent was needed post Lochnagar which was a welcome break in the warm conditions.
- Càrn a' Choire Bhòidheach
At the summit of Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr I bumped into Keith, whom I'd met the night before in the car park, who was doing all the munros again for the 4th? time! And had been very kind and given me lots of valuable advice! (thank you Keith).
I set off and summited Cairn Bannoch at 1300. At this point I felt I was making reasonable progress time-wise and owing to the fact that I live in London, and barely get the chance to do anywhere near as many munros as I'd like, I thought I'd try my luck by adding Tolmount and Tom Buide to the circuit. The weather was brilliant so I wasn't going to throw away the chance to do some more munros with an actual view for once from the top.
I left Cairn Bannoch, going back towards Fafernie, following a rough track down to the Knaps of Fafernie, before following this up to Tolmount. The terrain here was notably different to the main circuit with it being very boggy underfoot, at one point I ended up knee deep in water having misread what I thought was a solid piece of ground to stand on, soaking my foot. Having summited Tolmount I continued onto Tom Buide before returning back towards Fafernie. I opted not to try and cut across the valley directly to Broad Cairn as it looked very marshy. In all the detour took about 3 hours before I reached Cairn Bannoch again.
I set off for Broad Cairn reaching it at around 1700, before beginning the descent back to Glen Muick. On the way down the views were still incredible, and owing to the fact that I'd been lugging my tent the entire circuit I thought I may as well take advantage of the great views and use it. Although the weather forecast warned of an incoming front with rain and 30+ mph winds, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to camp at 850m on the side of Broad Cairn, overlooking the loch. Especially as I rarely get the chance to get out here in the first place. The views were far superior to those from the car park!
- Camp over looking the loch
I was awoken several times in the night by what felt like the tent beginning to take off, however I woke in the morning in one piece, and the same location I'd setup the tent, before heading back to Glen Muick. The conditions were significantly worse than the day before, with the views looking like this:
- Great views
I therefore continued not really seeing much, back to the car park, which only took 2 hours.
