Braeriach- Cairn Toul traverse - FAIL
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 11:05 amThe weather forecast had said the week was going to be filled with high pressure, and warm temperatures. A keen eye had been on the MWIS and everything was pointing to great week and an excellent opportunity to get in some more of my (the) top 10.
After much planning and arranging, the Thursday/Friday was taken off work, the B&B (Greystones in Kingussie) booked for the Wednesday night all that as required was the promised weather.
The B&B owner, Mark, was kind enough to have printed off the MWIS last update on the Wednesday night and handed it to us over breakfast on Thursday morning: 80% chance of cloud free munros, and 35-40mph - with gusts of around and up to 60-70mph. Nothing had changed!
Leaving the B&B slightly later than planned, we arrived at the Sugar Bowl carpark about 7:20, to which we were promptly booted and were on our way crossing the road making our way down the track to the bridge crossing Allt Mor before ascending the west bank on the great track. We were just reaching the bend in the track when we got battered by the wind accelerating dwn the Northern Corries. Such was the strength of the battering the father-in-law was getting blown off the track, but we kept going and as we descended to cross Caochan Dubh a'Chadha the wind died down and done so as we made our way to the Chalamain Gap, which was some sight. I'd never witnessed anything like it!
- Chalamain Gap
Having made our way through the gap we made good progress on the track and the Lairig Ghru came into view - just!
- The view of things to come?
We started the ascent of Braeriach and maintained a steady pace, even though now on the edge of the steep slopes we were being buffeted once again by the winds. The cloud was hanging low and showed no signs of shifting. At around the 1000m mark we started heading into the cloud, the winds still relentless these werent 60mph gusts, these were constant!
Making our way towards Srón na Lairige we contemplated turning back - we were still being hounded by the wind which was driving the cloud and it was like being in a shower! However, we decided to go on and reach the summit, but today it would only be Braeriach! The cloud was thick, and the father-in-law, only a few paces behind, was an unrecognisible figure. Lots of micro-navigation o follow the route but stay off the path and therefore away from the cliff edges had us finally at the summit - a full 5-1/2 hours after setting off. The length of time was purely from fighting against the head on wind.
- Summit - RosythAlly
Even here there as no rest from the elements, but we needed to stop and re-fuel - we hadn't taken anything on for 3 or 4 hours. Our packs were saturated but i managed to find my spare top - dry - and sneak this on under my soft shell that had held up well and had kept me dry and warm but was heavy with the absorbed water - as were the softshell trousers. The jacket came off and got replaced with a proper waterproof - and the waterproof trousers got flung on over my sodden trousers.
We soon departed and made our way back the way we came - a sensible thing to have done - the wether wasn't relenting and we had already missed out on the magnificant views from Braeriach, why go on and miss them from Sgór an Lochain Uaine and Cairn Toul? Apart from the fact that half of our expected time for the full traverse had been eaten up by Braeriach alone!
A small added plus was the views down into the Lairig Ghru as we dropped below the cloud level and subsequently the wind died too!
- Lairig Ghru - seen on the descent
- Lairig Ghru - seen on the descent
- Lairig Ghru - seen on the descent
We were in no rush now and made our way back towards the Chalamain Gap, although itself was self cast in its shadow, the rest of the route was now in the baking in the glare of the late afternoon sunshine!
And again walking the track towards the bridge crossing of the Allt Mor we were buffeted by the winds of the Northern Corries which gave us helping nudge on our way!
We were back at the car at 17:15 - a near 10 hours later!
Although we had failed in our main goal, we suceeded in chalking another one off the list of our must-do's before July '12.