An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

[csimbad]

A perfect start to my holidays, (Day 1) dropped of by the wife and kids at the car park 9am with excellent weather so was off like a shot as the midgie's were on the attack. I headed up in the direction of Cairn Lochan to take a right turn to Creag an Leith-choin to get back down to Lairig Ghru and on to the path leading to Braeriach. Once on to the path I started meeting quite a few others heading for Braeriach summit but soon passed once at Sron na Lairige as they were taking a break. Finally reaching the summit it felt like had took ages but it was well worth it as I couldn,t believe the how good the weather was and the views were spectacular so I was straight off to the Angels peak next as I couldn,t wait to get round there. By this time it was heating up a good bit and of course I took everything apart from the sun cream with me but thankfully once on the summit of Angels peak it had cooled down a bit. It was quite busy at the summit so I carried on to Cairn Toul, the view at the summit was excellent so decided to have a bite to eat and admire the view for a while. It was then to Devils point where on the summit I decided to rather than camp at the Corrour Bothy to head up Carn a' Mhaim, legs were getting a bit tired at this point but got up eventually to drop the bag and head up to the summit to take a few snaps and head back down just before the climb up the side of Ben Macdui to set up camp for the night at 8pm. So made the tea and got the head down, not to bad a night slept pretty good apart from getting up at 4am. (Day 2) 4am I took a peak outside and couldn,t see much due to low cloud so I was back in the sleeping bag for a couple more hours to waken to another glourious day so put the breakfast on packed up the gear and was off to Derry Cairngorm at 7am it was roasting when I got to the summit and thought I would take the t-shirt off as there was a little breeze, bad mistake I,ve never experienced a swarm of midge like that before and was running down the side off Derry Cairgorm like a shot nasty little gits. I headed towards Sgurr an Lochan Uaine and took a very faint path down, not the best route but got down to Glen Derry to carry on up the path to Fords of Avon Refuge and on to Bynack More. Took a while but finally got to the summit nackered so took a good rest before a long walk out which would take me out at the Reindeer centre 4pm. An absolute belter.

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Cairn Toul up ahead

The view down from Lurchers crag

Carn a' mhaim on the right, Dedils point and Cairn Toul on the left

Braeriach summit

Looking back at Angels peak

Ben Macdui

Cairn Toul summit

Devils point

Lairig Ghru

Corrour bothy

Carn a' Mhaim summit

Looking over from Carn a' Mhaim summit to Devils point

The spectacular view in the morning from Sron Riach

Derry Cairngorm summit

The way down I took form Derry Cairngorm

Glen Derry

Fords of Avon refuge

Bynack More summit

The path out fro Bynack More

[Border Reiver]

Enjoyed your report and excellent pics of my favourite part of Scotland. Surprised to hear about midges on Derry Cairngorm. That's been a monster walk - you must have been on the Red Bull.

[malky_c]

Looks like a great circuit, and nice weather too! Slightly envious of your high camp - looks like it paid off much better than camping by Corrour. That would have been a midge hell I'm sure.

[csimbad]

Thanks Border Reiver, yes its great up there enjoyed every minute of it apart from the midges that is was suprised to see them up Derry Cairngorm myself. I was nackered after that walk though the extra weight took a bit of getting used to, think I maybe took to much will know next time.

Enjoyed your report and excellent pics of my favourite part of Scotland. Surprised to hear about midges on Derry Cairngorm. That's been a monster walk - you must have been on the Red Bull.

[csimbad]

Cheers Malky C, Yes the weather was fantastic to hot at times, glad I pushed on for the high camp it was a perfect spot no noise what so ever. This was my first solo overnighter so I don't think it could have been any better well chuffed.

Looks like a great circuit, and nice weather too! Slightly envious of your high camp - looks like it paid off much better than camping by Corrour. That would have been a midge hell I'm sure.

[Steve B]

Good route, report and some great pictures. Well done.
How was the water supply when you are high up there. Is there much descent to find a source?

[csimbad]

Thanks Steve B, Yes there's plenty of water about thankfully as I was constantly filling up due to the heat think the first was round just before climbing Devils point then side of Ben Macdui where I camped for the night, my approach to Derry Cairngorm and then I was back down on Glen Derry so every water point was pretty much on route.

Good route, report and some great pictures. Well done.
How was the water supply when you are high up there. Is there much descent to find a source?

[Johnny Corbett]

Good one, thats the way to do the Cairngorms and you got the weather.

[pollyh33]

Stunning stuff. Can't believe the views, especially the scary ones down through the gullies!!!

Fantastic report

[skuk007]

Excellent report and great pictures, well done on your first solo overnighter, must have been a wee bit scary.
Missed Macdui out? Guessing you've done it already.

[gagfax]

That was a long trek. A great area for camping in.

[kevsbald]

Did you see a flash over by Cairn Toul at about 2045? My camera went off as I was taking my photo of the reindeer. We were probably camping at the same level but separated only by a valley....awww.

[soulminer]

Enjoyed reading that great weather you had,great pictures you took
Hope mid Sept brings similar weather as I hope to be in that same area for a couple of days/nights with the Chaos Collies.
Cheers.

[LeithySuburbs]

The sort of trip to live long in the memory - cheers for sharing . Hope the midges weren't half as bad as Glen Affric that weekend .

[csimbad]

Cheers Johnny C, was hoping for another night for 3 more munros, wife said no.