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An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:28 pm
by 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. :D

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Cairn Toul up ahead
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The view down from Lurchers crag
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Carn a' mhaim on the right, Dedils point and Cairn Toul on the left
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Braeriach summit
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Looking back at Angels peak
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Ben Macdui
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Cairn Toul summit
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Devils point
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Lairig Ghru
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Corrour bothy
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Carn a' Mhaim summit
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Looking over from Carn a' Mhaim summit to Devils point
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The spectacular view in the morning from Sron Riach
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Derry Cairngorm summit
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The way down I took form Derry Cairngorm
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Glen Derry
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Fords of Avon refuge
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Bynack More summit
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The path out fro Bynack More

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 8:12 am
by 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.

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:24 am
by 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.

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:17 am
by 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. :D
Border Reiver wrote: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.

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:32 am
by 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. :D
malky_c wrote: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.

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:36 am
by 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?

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:00 am
by 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. :)
Steve B wrote: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?

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:15 pm
by Johnny Corbett
Good one, thats the way to do the Cairngorms and you got the weather.

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 1:31 pm
by pollyh33
Stunning stuff. Can't believe the views, especially the scary ones down through the gullies!!!

Fantastic report :D

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:59 pm
by 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. :)

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:01 pm
by gagfax
That was a long trek. A great area for camping in. :D

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:33 pm
by 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.

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 5:13 pm
by soulminer
Enjoyed reading that :) great weather you had,great pictures you took 8)
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.

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:07 am
by LeithySuburbs
The sort of trip to live long in the memory - cheers for sharing :D . Hope the midges weren't half as bad as Glen Affric that weekend :? .

Re: An excellent 2 days in the Cairngorms

PostPosted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 8:05 pm
by csimbad
Cheers Johnny C, was hoping for another night for 3 more munros, wife said no.