free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
We have been blessed to have four trips to Scotland since the end of april. the first for my niece's wedding, lovely weekend. the second to the Cuillin munros in the first week of May - wow - the third to go very slowly up and down Ben Nevis in the heat and snow.
And now the fourth trip, for the Half Term/Jubilee holiday, a whole week off, starting with a return trip to reach the summit of Schiehallion, accompanied by my sister and her labradog. Coldwetandhungry has done the TR for this.
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21908 And now we plan a two night foray to the eastern Cairngorms to climb six munros from Linn of Dee.
Setting off by bike from Linn of Dee didn't start well as the rucksacks were big and swung about a lot, and we took an hour for about 3 miles. Rudolph heroically (he says) went on ahead and stashed his bag and came back for CWH's bag. However CW&H decided she would only moan about things we could fix, so no moaning about being bored, tired, sore feet, a long way etc, only about hunger, thirst, cold, hot and so on. Good plan for life, that.
- small girl, big rucksack
Having had a leisurely morning making sandwiches and last minute packing, we stashed the bikes near White Bridge and tucked into our first lunch of the day at about half past one.
we followed the path up the north/east side of the Dee all the way to Corrour.
- chest of Dee
- Butterwort in flower
- first view of the Devil's Point, Beinn Bhrotain on the left
- nice wee lochan along the way
- Devil's point again
- View up Lairigh Ghru opens up
- bit of weather coming in, needing waterproofs. At this point Rudolph realises he has brought the wrong trousers - the not showerproof pair!
- the bridge over the Dee at Corrour
At Corrour we stopped for our second lunch at about five o'clock, so call it tea time if you like. The rain came on so we sat inside the bothy for a while with some other folk and talked about midges, sleeping mats and exciting mountain exploits with the other people who were there.
But there is no time to linger, we were planning to climb a Munro and camp on the plateau so off we went up the corrie behind the bothy. At the bealach we dropped our bags and took the easy climb to the top of the Devil's Point.
- Ben Macdhui from the bealach
- Glen Dee from the top of Devil's Point
- summit of Devil's Point
Back down to the Bealach to retrieve our bags, it was now about 7 o'clock. We planned six hills and the walk out over the next two days and knew that the weather was set to deteriorate, so at this point there was an arg... heated discussion about whether to camp on the wide flat bealach where there was water available, or try to press on to the flattish bit at the head of allt clais an-t'sabhail where there looked like there might be a camping place. As it happened we found a flatt-ish place near a spring on the broad slope south of Cairn Toul, looking over towards beinn Bhrotain, where we soon tucked into our rehydrated tea and a hot drink and were fast asleep before long.
- purple saxifrage appearing among the brown grass, very surprisingly
- spring with moss and gorgeous colours
- evening sun on beinn bhrotain
- Devil's point on the left, looking over to Lochnagar and the White Mounth
the forecast for the morning was for cloud from 800-1000m and above, but we woke quite late to sunshine and high cloud, and much to Rudolph's excitement, a herd of his cousins grazing below us on the hillside.
- Happy morning rudolph in the bivvy tent
- Reindeer with Bheinn Bhrotain cliffs behind
We were soon up and breakfasted, I had 2 Eccles cakes, 2 oatcakes and a Babybel, and very nice it was too.
We packed up and set off straight up to reach the summit of Stob Coire an-t'Saighdeir at about ten o'clock
- zig zagging up the slope
- summit of Stob Coire an-t'Saighdeir with Cairn Toul behind
From there it is not so far to the top of Cairn Toul but the way up is almost entirely over big boulders so took us a while and we reached the top at about 10.45
- going up cairn toul
there are two tops here and the further away one is the summit although there can't be more thn a few inches in it.
- Cairn Toul summit pic
From Cairn Toul down the boulders and up a nice path to the top of Sgor an Lochain Uaine, the loch didn't look green but quite dark today and a long way down so we kept a good way from the edge. It was a busy summit where we chatted to a party who had come up via the north ridge from the Garbh Choire Bothy (not recommended to sleep in unless desperate, they had a tent) and another party who planned to descend that way. we took a good rest here and had our first lunch, as the sun came out and it was nice and warm, I managed to get my coat off!
- Top of Sgor an lochain uaine. the waterfall behind comes from the wells of Dee up on the plateau
After a good rest and refuel, we set off round the ridge to head for Braeriach. initially following the cliff edge where the remains of cornices made some interesting ice formations, we skirted to the east of Carn na Criche and headed just east of North where a cairn marks a suitable spot to cross the burn which is one of the sources of the Dee. The braeriach plateau is huge and it would be easy to become disorientated in mist or snow, so we practised some basic navigation skills even though the views were excellent in every direction.
- the baby Dee up on the plateau at 1200metres elevation
now I have run out of space for pictures so i will post this and continue on a second post.