Broke rules and broke ranks on Braeriach
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:32 pm
Whenever we walked in the Rothiemurchus area I would look at the sprawling mass of Braeriach and want to get up there.
Braeriach (one of Moira's pics taken earlier in the year)
It was just a case of persuading someone else to come with me! Evelyn was up for it and we reckoned we had enough daylight at the end of September if we didn't waste time. We'd heard mixed reports about negotiating the Chlamain gap with tired legs on the return so decided to walk in from Rothiemurchus which is a longer but arguably easier route.
We parked at Whitewell and headed east for a short distance on a rough path which reaches a T junction to a better path where you turn right. This path leads to a crossroads of paths where you take a left turn past Loch Deo heading towards the iron bridge over the river built by the Cairngorm Club.
Loch Deo
Once over the bridge we followed the path south east and after a kilometre there is another crossroads where you turn right in the direction of the Lairig Ghru. Somehow or other we missed this turn (okay we were deep in conversation ) and carried on towards Loch Morlich. By the time we realised what we'd done and retraced our steps we had lost 20 minutes which later in the day turned out to make a vital difference.
The path gradually leaves the forest behind traversing the slopes high above the Allt Druidhe. After a couple of kilometres the path drops down to the burn and is joined by the path coming down from the Chlamain Gap on the left. We crossed the burn and headed steeply up on to the Sron na Lairig ridge.
Northern end of Lairig Ghru looking north
Path descending from Chlamain Gap on opposite side of Lairig Ghru
We used a rough path from where we crossed burn but a new path has been made further along
Looking back to Rothiemurchus from Sron na Lairig
Lurcher's Crag
Sron na Lairig ridge
Evelyn was finding the climb tough going and couldn't get any speed up. I kept her in sight and waited for her to catch up but she felt she wasn't going to make it in the time we had. We carried on to the cairn on Sron na Lairig and had some food but still she didn't feel she could do it in the time. We had worked out we needed to be away from the summit by 2.15 to be back at the car before we lost daylight. (This was before we had head torches and if we'd had them that would have made all the difference!) The 20 minutes we lost earlier also would probably have made enough of a difference for her to feel she could do it.
I'd been sitting there looking at the way ahead and itching to crack on. It was a beautiful day and there were other walkers about so I made a tentative suggestion. How would she feel about me going on as fast as I could if I promised to turn back as soon as it got to 2.15. She could then take her time going down and I would catch her up later. She said "Yes, go for it!" and I could have hugged her!
I didn't hang about and haired off with the dogs down into the bealach and up the wide then narrowing ridge to the summit cairn perched on the edge of the cliff close to an awesome drop. There was a strong wind at the top which makes the dogs look slightly flattened and I was careful to keep them away from the edge.
Dogs sniffing out crumbs dropped by other walkers at Braeriach summit
I reached the top around 2.00 so had a margin to play with before starting the descent. I didn't stop to take any pics until I reached the top so now I could remedy that!
View from summit across Coire Brochain and Garbh Choire to Cairn Toul & Angel's Peak
There now follow various shots from Braeriach looking down into the Lairig Ghru. Apologies if I've posted too many but I can't decide which ones are best!
View south down Lairig Ghru
Whale back of Carn a' Mhaim rising to Ben Macdui
Since we had split up there was no question of returning via Gleann Einich as suggested by WH so I simply turned round and started the descent.
Descent off Braeriach
Devil's Point visible beyond Cairn Toul
I bombed down the path as fast as I could thinking Evelyn could already be near the car. I still remember the great feeling it was to find her sitting patiently waiting in a natural sun trap by the path on the Lairig Ghru! She had checked on me by asking other walkers if they'd seen a wifie with two dogs and I'd been spotted on the descent so she was reassured I wasn't far off. I know the advice is not to split up on hills but this time it felt the right thing to do. If I'd insisted we stick together that would have put a pressure on Evelyn to push herself when she wasn't feeling good. She has a lot of hill experience so didn't worry about being alone and she didn't want to hold me back so it seemed the best solution. At any rate I was very grateful to her for being such a good sport letting me get to the top!
We enjoyed the return walk, despite another wrong turn in Rothiemurchus which in the gloaming cost us about half an hour! Moral from this is you're more likely to make a navigational mistake when you relax because you think you're home and dry! Despite that we reached the car before we completely lost light.
Now Evelyn is looking for a companion to have another go at it!
Braeriach (one of Moira's pics taken earlier in the year)
It was just a case of persuading someone else to come with me! Evelyn was up for it and we reckoned we had enough daylight at the end of September if we didn't waste time. We'd heard mixed reports about negotiating the Chlamain gap with tired legs on the return so decided to walk in from Rothiemurchus which is a longer but arguably easier route.
We parked at Whitewell and headed east for a short distance on a rough path which reaches a T junction to a better path where you turn right. This path leads to a crossroads of paths where you take a left turn past Loch Deo heading towards the iron bridge over the river built by the Cairngorm Club.
Loch Deo
Once over the bridge we followed the path south east and after a kilometre there is another crossroads where you turn right in the direction of the Lairig Ghru. Somehow or other we missed this turn (okay we were deep in conversation ) and carried on towards Loch Morlich. By the time we realised what we'd done and retraced our steps we had lost 20 minutes which later in the day turned out to make a vital difference.
The path gradually leaves the forest behind traversing the slopes high above the Allt Druidhe. After a couple of kilometres the path drops down to the burn and is joined by the path coming down from the Chlamain Gap on the left. We crossed the burn and headed steeply up on to the Sron na Lairig ridge.
Northern end of Lairig Ghru looking north
Path descending from Chlamain Gap on opposite side of Lairig Ghru
We used a rough path from where we crossed burn but a new path has been made further along
Looking back to Rothiemurchus from Sron na Lairig
Lurcher's Crag
Sron na Lairig ridge
Evelyn was finding the climb tough going and couldn't get any speed up. I kept her in sight and waited for her to catch up but she felt she wasn't going to make it in the time we had. We carried on to the cairn on Sron na Lairig and had some food but still she didn't feel she could do it in the time. We had worked out we needed to be away from the summit by 2.15 to be back at the car before we lost daylight. (This was before we had head torches and if we'd had them that would have made all the difference!) The 20 minutes we lost earlier also would probably have made enough of a difference for her to feel she could do it.
I'd been sitting there looking at the way ahead and itching to crack on. It was a beautiful day and there were other walkers about so I made a tentative suggestion. How would she feel about me going on as fast as I could if I promised to turn back as soon as it got to 2.15. She could then take her time going down and I would catch her up later. She said "Yes, go for it!" and I could have hugged her!
I didn't hang about and haired off with the dogs down into the bealach and up the wide then narrowing ridge to the summit cairn perched on the edge of the cliff close to an awesome drop. There was a strong wind at the top which makes the dogs look slightly flattened and I was careful to keep them away from the edge.
Dogs sniffing out crumbs dropped by other walkers at Braeriach summit
I reached the top around 2.00 so had a margin to play with before starting the descent. I didn't stop to take any pics until I reached the top so now I could remedy that!
View from summit across Coire Brochain and Garbh Choire to Cairn Toul & Angel's Peak
There now follow various shots from Braeriach looking down into the Lairig Ghru. Apologies if I've posted too many but I can't decide which ones are best!
View south down Lairig Ghru
Whale back of Carn a' Mhaim rising to Ben Macdui
Since we had split up there was no question of returning via Gleann Einich as suggested by WH so I simply turned round and started the descent.
Descent off Braeriach
Devil's Point visible beyond Cairn Toul
I bombed down the path as fast as I could thinking Evelyn could already be near the car. I still remember the great feeling it was to find her sitting patiently waiting in a natural sun trap by the path on the Lairig Ghru! She had checked on me by asking other walkers if they'd seen a wifie with two dogs and I'd been spotted on the descent so she was reassured I wasn't far off. I know the advice is not to split up on hills but this time it felt the right thing to do. If I'd insisted we stick together that would have put a pressure on Evelyn to push herself when she wasn't feeling good. She has a lot of hill experience so didn't worry about being alone and she didn't want to hold me back so it seemed the best solution. At any rate I was very grateful to her for being such a good sport letting me get to the top!
We enjoyed the return walk, despite another wrong turn in Rothiemurchus which in the gloaming cost us about half an hour! Moral from this is you're more likely to make a navigational mistake when you relax because you think you're home and dry! Despite that we reached the car before we completely lost light.
Now Evelyn is looking for a companion to have another go at it!