Carn na Caim

[tmobyrne]

Just a quick note on my walk up Carn na Caim on Sunday. Was looking for an easy hill given the amount of snow that is about at the moment.

Carn na Caim Summit cairn

Had an early start at about 7.45 which meant I was the first walker out and had to make all steps for the first time, it also looked as though I was the first person up there in many days given the absence of any steps whatsoever! First 500m was making steps up to 12 inches deep in slightly soft slushy stuff. After that the crust hardened up so managed to stay on top of it for about 70% of the time which the odd breakthrough up to 24 inches!

The plateau was mainly hard frozen with a thin layer of 'ice' with the odd snow drift to stumble through. For once the Gods shined on me an the sun was out as you can see from the photos. By the time I made it back to the car the sun had gone and the rain arrived so I got the best part of the day.

For those of you who have not ventured up here, the plateau is featureless but you generally follow an old fence line to within 200m of the 'summit'

I am hoping to get up into the Cairngorms later this week, hopefully the wind has sorted ou the deep powder and some freeze/thaw should have hardened the crust!

Terence

[malky_c]

I'm annoyed now! After last weekend's wading session, I decided not to bother going out on the hills this weekend. The weather at home wasn't even that great, and that usually indicates that it is even worse on the hills.

Looks like you had a good day out though.