Walking of the Christmas Pudding on Sgairneach Mhor

[Cairngorm creeper]

A lull after the Christmas storms and time for some (gentle) exersize and solace of the hills. Sgairneach Mhor had been on the to do list since last winter and today it's time had come. We approached the one Munro as a round walk, traversing it from west to east.

The Route

The weather reports for the day were fairly pessimistic regarding views, and we thought a bit of navigation practice may be required.

The weather

We parked in layby 79 on the A9 and started walking at 08:30. The weather seemed mild and the views looked promising.

Looking into Coire Dhomhain from the layby.

There was one party of three setting out from the layby, the only other walkers we saw all day. The Allt Dubhaig was low enough to wade across with very little boulder hoping.
After the snow storms yesterday the snow covering looked surprisingly patchy on the hills as we followed the track into the Coire.

Sgairneach Mhor and Coire Creagach inviting us onwards

Our route took us to the end of the track and then a little further where a series of Islands allowed us to cross the Allt Coire Dhomhain with dry feet .

Crossing with dry feet.

It was then a case of straight up the steep heathery slope, following a line to the left of a burn/gully that was well banked out with snow.

10:10 Starting the ascent up the heathery slopes

The going was less steep than the contours on the map suggested and gave interesting views over the slopes of A,Mharconiach, just about everything else was now hidden in cloud and a compass bearing came in useful to keep us on track.

The Slopes of A'Mharconiach

By 850m, it was starting to feel seriously cold and windy, so we donned extra layers before joining the spur along western edge of Coire Creagach and following this to the summit.

11:45 Sgairneach Summit

Summit visibility variable, but never very poor and sadly no views to the west.

The wall around the trig point provided shelter from the wind and was banked with fresh clean snow.

Time for Lunch

Having spent nearly an hour on the summit we headed east around the Coire rim.

The east was having a much better day than the west.

North East to Meall a Chaorrain and beyond

Across the Sow of Atholl to A' Bhuidheanach

Blue Skies in the north east

We were absorbed with the views and musing over footsteps in the snow and only remembered to look out for the route down just in time. The descent had some largish patches of snow of which a couple were hard enough to require step kicking.

Snowy patches on the descent

The path came and went with the snow and when it did appear it was frequently very icy, so we mostly descended down the heather and rejoined the track just before the foot bridge.

Looking west from the bridge.

The skies had cleared everywhere as we made our way back down the path.

Wading back across the Altt Dubhaig

and back to the car for 3pm. An easy day, so not sure how much of the Christmas pudding did get walked off but the weather was much better than the met office forecast and Sgairneach Mhor has a fine shape for a mountain so near the road. An enjoyable outing and we were back in daylight .

[litljortindan]

Looks like proper winter.

[FromDownSouth]

Cracking photos! There is something about hills and snow that makes them look even more stunning!

[Cairngorm creeper]

Looks like proper winter.

Cracking photos! There is something about hills and snow that makes them look even more stunning!

Thank you. It would make a good start to winter, if only the snow would stick around. It is so exciting to see it come and sad to see it disappear again so quickly. Fingers crossed for lots of the white stuff in the new year.

[rockhopper]

Good to see it turned out better than forecast - nice to see the hills here with blue skies - cheers

[Cairngorm creeper]

Cheers Rockhopper. I sometimes wonder how many good days we miss out on by believing the weather forecast

[Huff_n_Puff]

Great photos - that's how my daughter likes her Christmas puddling - with ice cream

[Cairngorm creeper]

Great photos - that's how my daughter likes her Christmas puddling - with ice cream

Thank you. Your daughter has good taste. Everything is so much nicer when topped with ice cream.