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Epic weather, views and atmospheric conditions made for a stunning day out in the Monadhliath mountains. It was also a pretty epic 9.5 hours due to difficult conditions on both the ascent and descent. The ascent involved about an hour of frustrating progress in upper Gleann Ballach, across knee-deep snow, with a thick crust that
almost held your weight, but not quite. Occasionally it would hold your weight for a few steps before collapsing. I snapped my hiking pole on one of these plunges through the crust.The slow descent was mainly due to the deep snow that persisted low down on the southern slope of A' Chailleach, and later on the deep heather, snow and ice patches that made it very difficult to follow the path down in the dark. At least the light held and a nearly full moon helped to negotiate the upper snow slopes safely.
- Setting off from the car park about 8:30, a crisp cold morning with clear skies. The view up Glen Banchor
- Hoar-frosted trees over the river Calder
- Looking like it is going to be a special day. Creag Liath and Creag nan Abhag guarding the Allt Fionndrigh from Glenballoch
- Higher up the Allt Fhionndrigh
- It was soon time to get the crampons on for the first time this season. Maybe not strictly necessary this early on, it made walking over the icy patches possible while still admiring the view
- Looking back on Geal Charn from near the top of the pass over to Gleann Ballach
- First views of Carn Dearg and Carn Macoul across Gleann Ballach
- I promised myself not to make Dad-jokes about the passage through the upper Gleann Ballach, but it was a proper B****ch. It took well over an hour to traverse 2 km because of knee deep snow with a crust that almost held your weight but then inevitably collapsed. I broke my hiking pole falling through at one point and was screaming with frustration at this strength-sapping effort so early on.
- I finally made it through and on to the ramp leading up to the Carn Dearg-Carn Ban bealach where the snow cover was thinner and I could start to make proper progress again
- Approaching the summit of Carn Dearg with spectacular views of the Cairngorms
- The most impressive views for me though were the wide-open spaces across the Monadhliath to the north
- Looking down the eastern corrie on Carn Dearg in to Gleann Balloch
- View over to the Cairngorms from Carn Dearg
- Wind-sculpted snow-art
- I took a lot of photos on the undulating traverse across (here the summit cairn of Carn Ballach), which probably meant I was dawdling a bit too much given the time lost lower down and the late hour
- But it was an incredible feeling of open space
- It was 3:15by the time I reached the top of Carn Sgulain. This is another summit with more than one cairn, so of course I had to trek over to the other one, just to be sure
- And the day was getting short by the time I started the descent down to the Allt Cuil na Caillich, with pink skies over the Cairngorms. There was deep snow build up here and I took some time to traverse along and find a shallower descent line down to the burn
- Apart from the first few metres, the far side was wind-scoured with only shallow snow, but by now the sun was properly setting in the west and I raced up A' Chailleach as fast as I could to have some light to assess the snow on the descent down the south slope
- A'Chailleach
- The slope looked good for a more-or-less direct descent down the southern side and the going was generally ok on the upper sections, sometimes breaking through into knee- or thigh-deep drifts, but it isn't so bad in descent.
- Once the head torch came out though, it was difficult to pick my way across the broken, mixed ground on the middle slopes and the heather below. Finding the path by headtorch was near impossible lower down and I had to keep the microspikes on the whole way down because of the frozen patches of snow-melt
It was a spectacular day of epic proportions in every sense. Certainly my poor blistered feet thought so. I didn't meet another soul the whole day, though two people had done it ahead of me, the day before if not the same day based on the footprints I saw. I have to say I was tired enough that if there had been an easier escape option off Carn Sgulain I'd probably have taken it, but on this round you're really pretty much committed after you leave Carn Dearg. Overall an incredible day to remember on the hills.
