Lochnagar Xmas Eve treat
Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:17 am
Last winter it seemed that I sat in the office for weeks on end looking out at fabulous blue skies and perfect winter conditions and every weekend the cloud or another blizzard would come in and wipe out the weekend. The feeling was compounded by kinley's scintillating Lochnagar - Glen Muick redeems itself midweek report. Six days latter when I did eventually get to the Loch Muick area the thaw had set in and the going was fairly tough for Cairn Bannoch & Broad Cairn. I did have a good day in March when I tackled 3 White Mounth Munros from Loch Callater. It was while I sat atop Lochnagar on this day that I saw a couple of walkers approaching from the NE ridge and thought that would have to be my next way up (having failed to get to the Lochnagar corrie in late Feb when I only made it as far as Gelder Shiel).
So the week before Xmas the weather was set fair and I managed to get Xmas Eve off at short notice. The next problem was getting to the mountains. All the main roads may have been cleared but the minor ones were a different story. I thought the Linn of Dee road was more likely to have been cleared than the Loch Muick road so had planned to tackle Sgor Mor, a Corbett I have yet to do. But I thought I'd have a look at the Loch Muick road on the way. As it turned out the road was just about passable to non-4WD, 2-WD, non-snow tyred, non-snow socked, run of the mill, front wheel drive Mondeo. Only one other car in the mostly cleared car park, so £3 parking paid and it was off on my way by 8:30. Temperature was a balmy -4C, having driven though -9C on the way up.
Forecast was excellent so was initially a bit disappointed by the amount of lowish cloud gathered around Lochnagar. Going was pretty good to start with: 10cm of powdery snow but recent tracks to follow along the path. Followed the standard route onto the slopes of Meikle Pap and then diverged on a NW direction to edge round this top and so into the grand corrie. From around 750m there was hard ice under the powder and as I headed north this frozen névé became more exposed so it was on with the crampons.
When I rounded Meikle Pap I was bit disappointed by the cloud obscuring the top of the cliff but the lochan was a smooth milky expanse.
Lochnagar Corrie
The map shows a series of wee lochans below the main one but from afar they weren't visible. So I headed for the northern end of the main lochan, found a small trickle of water draining out of it and crossed there... but as soon as I stood on the other side there was an ominous cracking sound. I hurried on and in retrospect I suspect I walked across 5m of one of the frozen lochans. Looking back it was still difficult to make out the outline of the lochans in the flat light - but it was the feel of the ground under my crampons that was the give away.
Next it was the brief but steep ascent to reach the NE ridge. I was hoping this section would be like the north side of Meikle Pap but the opposite was true, it was deep soft windslab. It may have only been 300-400m long with perhaps 100m of ascent but this section took me a good 20 minutes and was exhausting. I was not a little relieved when I reached safer ground on the ridge. There were still deep drifts round some of the boulders but generally it was only calf deep and not quite so steep. But not having been out much recently I was nowhere near peak fitness and it was hard work. On the way up had to stop a couple of times for a breather and a bit of sustenance. Sat down in a clump of rocks for some shelter and was struck by the formation of rime on the rock in front of me. The "teeth" are about 5-8cm long.
Ice Monster
But once I got to the plateau the cloud had gone and the rest of the day was just wonderful. I'll let the photos tell the story form here...
Over 3000ft - looking down & across to Meikle Pap (980m) & a partially clouded Conachcraig (865m) from the north east ridge of Lochnagar.
View North - still wearing crampons but could have done without up here
- View North
Lochnagar Plateau - even the snow was rimed making it very bobbly
The Clag Clears
No guessing where I'm headed
- Heading
Virgin Summit - definitely the first & almost certainly the only person to reach the summit of Lochnagar on this day. The trig point is dead centre
Frozen trig - that black midday sky again
- Looking north from the summit across to the main body of the Cairngorms
Rime rock @ summit
Lochnagar sunburst #1
Looking east
- View east from summit
Approaching cloud - cloud coming up from The Stuic. Luckily I only caught the edge of this so didn't have any whiteout problems
Lochnagar plateau #2 with Cac Carn Mor on the horizon
Conachcraig & Meikle Pap from the summit
Towards the Cairngorms #2
Foot prints (mine)
Through the gap: Meikle Pap (980m)
Cac Carn Mor
Lochnagar cliffs #1
Lochnagar corrie #1
Lochnagar sunburst #2
Lochnagar cliffs #2
Lochnagar corrie #2
- Towards Loch Muick
Distant walkers
Approaching Loch Muick #1
Approaching Loch Muick #2
Loch Muick sundown #1
There's a crack in Loch Muick. A small burn (Allt an Dearg) flows into the loch at this point and it would appear to have weaken the ice at this point such that a crack propagated right across the loch. Snow has built up at the crack making it visible from afar.
Lock Muick sundown #2
Risky. The distant walkers turned out to be three young lads. One of them ventured a good 20m onto the ice while his mate attacked it with his ice axe! I stood well back. In the end no harm accrued. The ice was apparently over 2 inches thick.
Sun sets behind Loch Muick
Loch Muick boat house sunset
River Muick
Back to the car park in good twilight by 4pm and was soon on my way - I still had Xmas presents to wrap but it felt like I'd opened mine early
. You been holding off on publishing this until the New Year so you can get your hands on one of the new "Walk of the Month" prizes 
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