Walkhighlands

Friday 18th July 2014 saw Peter Adams and I tackle another Cairngorms adventure. Exactly a year past, we wild camped on the Braeriach summit, tackling Angel's Peak, Cairn Toul and Devil's Point the next morning before the long trudge back through the Lairig Ghru to the car. From the plateau of Braeriach we had spotted an amazing pointy mountain that sat on the edge of a precipice - Sgor Gaoith:

Sgor Gaoith as seen from Braeriach a year past:


Navigating to the Achlean carpark was problematic, but eventually we got there and were on our way around 6pm. Peter had packed the Hotel Tente De Pedro, which was to be our humble abode for the evening. Given that the drive is almost 3 hours from Glasgow to get here, I would consider driving up, bagging both Sgor Gaoith and driving home in the one day from Central Scotland as a step too far. The walk alone is 18 miles (28km).

There are 3 main of routes up this pair from Glen Feshie, we chose the middle route as it provided the most flexibility. For this, you head along the tarmac road and veer left to a hillside path when you see the "Carn Ban Mor" stone.

The walk up the hillside is initially through woodland but opens out further up. The strong headwind didn't help, but eventually the top was reached and we came to a proverbial crossroads - left for Sgor Gaoith, Right for Mullach Clach a'Blair, straight ahead for Braeriach (I think). As Peter and I are keen photographers, our #1 priority was sunset and sunrise shots, so we decided given the time, we'd only reach 1 munro so it'd have to be the Top Notch one - Sgor Gaoith.

We duly headed up and over the subtop Carn Ban Mor, skirting past it's rounded shelter. Then you get the wow moment, the first sighting of the prow of Sgor Gaoith with the Braeriach plateau, Angel's Peak and Cairn Toul to the right.

In no time at all, we arrived at the summit and filled our boots with shots. It was extremely blowy and looked as though it was going to rain so we checked into the Hotel Tente De Pedro and had a coffee and then some delicious red wine. There was no dramatic sunsets, the light just went.

We rose early to get sunrise, but had that sinking feeling when we unzipped the tent door only to be greeted with scotch mist - argh! The plus side was that we had an extra hours sleep! At 5am we packed up and retraced the path - that was until the path fizzled out! Being able to see barely 30 feet around, we soon got lost on the plateau. This is where my trusty etrex 20 with all GB OS maps paid for itself. I used it to navigate back to the crossroads, from where it was all well defined paths in the many miles to the second munro Mullach Clach a'Bhlair. This is supposedly a rounded lump, but all I know is it has a wee cairn on a very flat summit. We headed down the landriver track and eventually came out of the clag, albeit too low down to have caught the Corrie view.

As we approached the Caledonian Forest of Glen Feshie, we knew we were in a special place. Great photographs from down here!

The walk back was easy but long and we were back at the car for 12 noon. The GPS said we'd been moving for 8 hours, so it really is a long walk and as I said, glad we overnighted it.

1. Achlean car park - lovely evening for it!


2. Beautiful Glen Feshie


3. Carn Ban Mor stone marks the turnoff


4. Destination - the snow patch


5. Well defined path


6. Look back downhill towards The West


7. Shelter of Carn Ban Mor


8. Sgor Gaoith & Braeraich


9. Sgor Gaoith's prow


10. Sgor Gaoith's summit with summer snow patches on Braeriach


11. Long way down to Loch Einich


12. Braeriach


13. View South


14. Loch Einich & Braeriach


15. View North


16. Me on Mullach Clach a'Bhlair summit with trusty Etrex 20


17. The descent path - could easily drive a landrover up this


18. Heather and Scots Pine


19. Look back to Mullach CAB


20. Caledonian Pine Forest


21. Deadwood


22. Heavenly Glen Feshie
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23. Lonely Scots Pine


24. River Feshie


25. Rounded hills


26. Winding path back to carpark




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