4 seasons in 6 hours
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:43 am
Yet again the weather forecasters were trying to get us to head east, forecast in the west was for rain, rain and more rain so east was the place to head. My plan was to tackle Ben Avon and her neighbour, I was planning to take my bike so Friday was spent cleaning the bike of 3 months of dust and removing the front wheel ready for the journey north
So I was all prepared and really looking forward to the day until social media stepped in to throw a spanner into the works Rod (Rodmeister) had posted a link on FB from Braemar MRT who issued a warning about the state of the path in Gleann an t-Slugain, due to snow melt etc Change of plan was called for
There were a couple of posts in the 'meets' section, a very long walk tackling a couple of Munro's Beinn Bhreac and her neighbour or a couple of Corbett's Culardoch and Carn Liath, so I studied the OS maps and opted for a Corbett Sunday. My concern was snow melt on the path approaching Beinn Bhreac and burns interfering with the walk
I informed Gary (backpacker) that I would tag along and keep him company and shortly after received a PM from Cat (cmarcol) asking to tag along as well.
Gary was planning to set off at second light 8am, so I arranged to uplift Cat at 5.45am as I guesstimated the trip to Braemar would take a couple of hours As it turned out and not surprising really, there were very few other idiots driving north at silly o'clock and we arrived at the car park at Keiloch before 7.30
Gary turned up almost bang on 8am and proceeded to park his car on top of my walking poles, he had to reverse briefly whilst I retrieved my vital equipment, plastic end was a bit squashed otherwise undamaged
The start of the day was greeted by rain/drizzle so it was waterproof jackets etc on and we set off along the tarmac road.
This didn't look very promising but we soldiered on walking along the very good track, as we started to climb gradually, the rain turned to snow but it was easing and there wasn't a breath of wind
Things were improving weather wise, however there was still plenty of clag hiding the surrounding higher ground, the good news was that a small section of blue sky was spotted briefly
We encountered a couple of snow patches covering the track, but the snow was firm and easily crossed
Eventually Culardoch appeared, then disappeared and appeared again and the final ascent to the summit was easy over short heather that was covered with a very recent sprinkling of snow.
After taking a few photo's we then started the descent, Cat had decided she wasn't up to tackling the next Corbett so it was up to the men to brave the elements
The initial climb up towards Carn Liath was easy, a couple of snow fields to cross, but the main problem was about to be the weather
As we neared the brow of the summit plateau, the wind picked up and we were then battered by hailstones.
We had a cunning plan - big thanks to Russell (RTC) for advising us that Carn Liath may soon be demoted to a top and the Corbett would be Creag an Dail Bheag, so we had decided to head to that summit first and that was by far the most difficult part of the day. We were easy targets for the very strong wind which was carrying snow and hail, so once we reached the summit it was a quick check around to make sure we were on the highest bit and then head straight across to Carn Liath. Both these plateau's have a couple of cairns which in poor visibility would definitely cause confusion We were confused and we could see where we were going
There is a large stane wall on the left hand side as you approach Carn Liath and we would follow that down the ridge on our descent.
We eventually reached the point where the descent got a bit tricky, which involved a teeny weeny bit of scrambling, then it was a clamber over a small boulder field. As we could see the track in the distance it was just a matter of picking our way through snow melt, peat hags and eventually crossing a small fast flowing burn. After that it was just a matter of strolling along the track admiring the views and constantly checking our phone/GPS to see if we were getting any nearer to the cars
After 5 and a half hours we arrived back at the car park, a very enjoyable day and another 2 Corbett's conquered. I doubt if there are 2 easier Corbett's, even though 25km is quite a distance, the ascent was easy
Big thanks to Gary and Cat for being great company, hope you weren't too scared with my driving Cat, maybe you are getting used to it
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