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We'd arranged to take a friday off from work so had various plans for a three day extravaganza. Until the weather forecast doomed all plans that involved any mountains in the north west...which was where all our plans lay. Onto plan E then...the forecast for the North east was for high winds but not much rain or snow....off we go to Rothiemurchas campsite.
Original plan was to do Meall a'Buachaille on friday to gauge the conditions, Bynack More and Creag Mhor Saturday and finish up maybe on Geal Charn on the Sunday. That would leave Sick Kid on the frustrating 199 Munros. On the drive up the sun was out, the wind didn't seem too extreme, so we decided to hit Glen Feshie and climb Sgor Gaoith instead. I'd done this hill back in September and was a little anxious as I remembered the precipitous drop from the summit to Loch Einich below...with big winds that could be interesting
A very pleasant walk up through the pines along Allt Ruadh brought us to the base of Geal Charn which I remembered with some distaste as a steep heathery slog. Took it a bit slower this time and enjoyed the views. By the time we got to the top, the wind is blasting us - fortunately into our faces rather than from the rear, I'm thinking, less chance of becoming a kite when we get to the top of SG. Battling against the elements we get to the flattish area at the base of Meall Buidhe where we have to put crampons on to stop the wind skiting us along the ice. Snow is crisp and consolidated and we follow several sets of footprints along and up to the top of SG. The wind is actually less strong here, but it's still a very gingerly crawl on hands and knees at the very top to touch the highest point - and remainder of a cairn is well buried under the snow. I'm so anxious about falling through cornice that I don't even take a summit picture shot for SK
We retreat and follow a line along the NW shoulder which I remember as another long slog through heather - this time it's a wheeze - a huge bumslide for over 200m is great fun - although on ridged snow is a little juddery in the nether regions
Back to the track with only a minor amount of wading through soft snow and we're back at the car in under 5 hours. Time to drive along the Feshie road to the campsite.
Pine trees by Allt Ruadh
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23weasels, on Flickr
Geal Charn ahead
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23weasels, on Flickr
Icy tundra
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
(Almost a) Summit pic
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23weasels, on Flickr
Bumslide!
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
A splendid place this - you get camp in the woods on a floor of soft pine needles 9and occasional less soft pine cones) and you have the advantage of a cracking toilet/shower block. Very nice. When we arrive there's a humongous tent of climbers and us, although a few other small tents arrive over the weekend. We pitch beside a stream which provides babbling and burbling sounds to aid sleep. Pasta and potato scones for tea.
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23weasels, on Flickr
I wake up on the Saturday feeling crap - headache and nausea. Usually such afflictions pass after a bit of walking but today they were with me all day and made me fairly miserable. Winds were strong again, but the sky was blue and we set out with gay abandon to claim a couple more hills. I'd walked Bynack More and returned via Strath Nethy back in September - taking 5 and a half bours, so I was thinking we'd take about 7 or 8 today, even allowing for the addition of a Corbett on the way. That would allow us to get back to Glenmore Lodge, where we'd parked, for a pint and a hot meal. The lack of any snow on the track out from Glenmore helped to confirm this delusion - we'd simply pick up the track after descending from Creag Mhor, head to the Fords of Avon and back along Strath Nethy, simple...
Meall a'Buachaille on the walk out
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
No snow on the track
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
Cairn Gorm
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23weasels, on Flickr
Towards Bynack
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23weasels, on Flickr
Another view to Cairn Gorm
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23weasels, on Flickr
No problems with the walk out, although the sun on the snow is making my headache worse. As we near the start of the hill proper we decide to take a rest and have some food to manage the steep white pyramid ahead. There's a couple with a pair of black labs also taking shelter in one of the craggy outcrops - they've tried to go up already but were beaten back by winds near the top -the dogs didn't want to keep going. Feeling a little revived by half a sandwich we struck off up the steep shoulder. Great snow for climbing on - firm and crunchy underfoot, brilliant sun overhead, blue sky and pure white snow. After the slope we had to negotiate various craggy knobbles, being wind-blasted the whole time. Finally we get to the summit area, hard to make out which ice-encrusted excrescence is the cairn, but Allison finally gets her 200.
Bynack pyramid appearing in the distance
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
Big & Little Bynacks
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23weasels, on Flickr
Frolicking dog
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23weasels, on Flickr
Steep ascent
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23weasels, on Flickr
View to North
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
Top just in sight
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
Sick Kid finally gets her 200
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23weasels, on Flickr
We're still doing OK for time - it's about 2.15 - and I think nothing of pressing on with my plan, we set a course down the SE side of Bynack again on fine crunchy snow. The wind is whistling around from the South, blasting a low level snowstorm by our feet. As we get below about 750m the snow turns into that nightmare form of torture where you step then sink up to your knees with each stride. Fortunately turning to go up again onto the slopes of Creag Mhor we regained good snow. This was a relatively easy pull up 200m or so towards a cluster of boulders that had escaped being snow encrusted. My nausea had returned and I wanted to get going. We headed off to the SW past some crags then descended to the invisible "path" running alongside the invisible "allt dearg" - everything under a thick layer of awful soft snow. My snowshoes would have come in ideal - but one pair of snowshoes between 2 persons would hardly have been reasonable
Descent
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23weasels, on Flickr
View to Creag Mhor
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23weasels, on Flickr
Ascent
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23weasels, on Flickr
Bouldery top
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23weasels, on Flickr
Crags
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23weasels, on Flickr
View from the top
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23weasels, on Flickr
Sickly weasel
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
View back to Bynack
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23weasels, on Flickr
Still in good snow...
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23weasels, on Flickr
We headed round the SE side of Coire na Coinneach into Glen Avon. Every step was a misery of slump into softness, the blue sky had turned white and, looking up at the unflinching white cliffs of Sron Gorm I finally got a little taste of the Cairngorms in winter. I could imagine being out here, exhausted trudging through through thick soft snow with a blizzard coming on and just wanting to give up. SK took over breaking trail and I silently trailed along behind her just wanting out of this stuff. Did think about gaining some height in the hope of getting onto firmer snow, but lacked the energy to do that. Could see little of Loch Avon - which was covered in snow & ice nor anything other than the outlines of the cliffs around - a disappointment as I had wanted SK to see this view. All we got was bleak whiteness. So on we went - seemingly forever. I hoped that when we got to The Saddle that everything would ease, but it took well over an hour to go the couple of km from Fords of Avon to the Saddle. We did have to gain height to get up there, meeting another walker on the way. Unfortunately, instead of being a nice clear path, when we entered Strath Nethy it was more of the same - soft snow. For about 4 km up the Strath it was like this, with the only change being that as we walked on the soft snow started to have bog underneath it. Even better
In September this had seemed like a lovely stroll but it was far from lovely today. The light was fading, the path squelchy bog with frequent holes to step in, rocks to stumble over, you get the picture
There's a great sense of relief when we reach the track and tramp the last 5km back to Glenmore. The stars are out in a clear black sky. 10 hours of toughness. I'm still feeling sick, we're both knackered and there's no chance of a hot meal the way I'm feeling - so it's back to the tent and bed.
Approaching loch avon
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23weasels, on Flickr
Strath Nethy from the Saddle
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
It's a windy night - the gusts are fierce high in the trees, and I wonder - briefly - about the wisdom of pitching a tent in a forest in a storm. A fitful night's sleep visited by many strange dreams and the sound of the stream beside the tent becoming something of a torrent. I'm still feeling a bit iffy but manage a bowl of porridge. We've decided - despite various aches and pains, to get another hill today if we can - don't want Scoob gaining an advantage on the Corbett numbers
...forecast was for even higher winds this morning but it doesn't seem that bad to be honest...it's a short trip up Meall a'Buachaille from Glenmore and I reckon we can both manage that...Showers and sun, the waters of An Lochan Uaine gleaming green through the trees. We walk back along the path to Ryvoan bothy, then up the well made path to the top. A few other walkers on the trail, the winds strong and occasionally buffeting us around but no major problems. Good views back down to the Lochan and the track we'd taken yesterday <<shudder>>
We decided on just returning by the ascent route and nipped into the bothy to have our lunch - there were a couple of army guys in who'd been snow holing on Cairngorm the night before. Back to the car and an early trip back down the road. Decided to call into the Tiso in Perth on the way and had something of a mini-WalkHighlands meet - Graeme D and daughter, then Scoob and Fi - had a fine wee natter, didn't buy anything (for a change) and headed home, via a nice meal in Glasgow to make up for the lack of sustenance the night before.
Morning river
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23weasels, on Flickr
An Lochan Uaine
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23weasels, on Flickr
Ryvoan Bothy
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23weasels, on Flickr
Meall a'Buachaille
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23weasels, on Flickr
View back to Cairngorm
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
Track to Bynack
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23weasels, on Flickr
Summit coming into sight
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23weasels, on Flickr
Top
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
Ridge to the North
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23weasels, on Flickr
Ryvoan bothy
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23weasels, on Flickr
Heading back to Glenmore
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
lessons learned -
1. don't use summer times to calculate winter times
2. just cos the weather forecast says winds of 80-90kph doesn't mean you can't get out on the hills