Gael-Charn, Carn Dearg via Dalwhinnie

[Les Stuart]

Last Wednesday I drove up to Dalwhinnie and arrived at the car park about 9am. The plan for the next two days was to cycle the 14km to Culra, pitch my tent then do Gael-Charn and Carn Dearg. Next day do Ben Alder and Beinn Bheoil before taking the tent down and cycle back out to Dalwhinnie. About a month ago I had done Beinn Eibhinn and Aonach Beag from Laggan so only had to concentrate on the four above.
Surprisingly everything more or less went to plan and within my time schedule.
I cycled in from Dalwhinnie down the track and arrived at Culra about 12am. Pitched up my tent, unloaded my gear into the tent that I did not need to walk with, had lunch then set off about 1pm.

My route was to head along the path from the Bothy for about 3km to the burn coming from Loch an Sgoir then go up Lancet Edge to Sgor Lutharn

Lancet Edge

However on reaching Lancet Edge and having a good look up to see the route, I decided that it would require some serious scrambling in sections and since I was on my own I would not risk it. I then went straight north heading for the bealach between Carn Dearg and Diollaid a' Chairn.

Bealach

Loch an Sgoir

On reaching the bealach I then headed for Diollaid a' Chairn then dropped down before heading for the summit plateau of Gael-Charn and the long walk over the plateau to the summit cairn.

Geal-Charn Plateau

Summit Geal-Charn

Aonach Beag

By now the clouds were well above the summits and the views west were excellent as you could see for miles. I headed back the way I came dropping down eventually to the bealach below Carn Dearg and followed the path which was a gradual slope all the way to the summit.

Carn Dearg

Again the views were excellent all round .I followed the path east wards for about 1km or so then dropped straight down the slope coming out onto the path about 200mteres east of the bothy.
This was about 6pm and feeling tired because of the early morning start. Had tea and was a sleep about 9.30pm and slept through till about 7.30am. A good day and hopefully the same tomorrow.

[LeithySuburbs]

Nice to read a report on these 2 hills . Such a remote area - can't wait to get there .