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Hadn't been to Cairngorms before so did these on Sunday, roads were pretty quiet till I got to Aviemore but the ski centre was busy and the car park was getting full (apparently ski centres are busiest when there's snow on the hills
). Left about 9am and headed across to the ridge. The one on the right is the route up but the other one looks narrower andmore interesting. Decided to stick to the WH route.
View back to Loch Morlich:
The other, more interesting ridge - looks tricky further up
Now heading into the clag. MWIS had 70% chance of cloud-free Munros but low cloud too:
Long walk in the cloud now, someone had considerately left footprints to follow:
Cloud briefly broke & I got a view - thought this might have been the last of the day:
The hills had obviously been busy with tracks going in all directions. Spotted loads of guided groups & winter skills courses. Towards the top of Macdui I started to get clear of the clag:
Over to Derry Cairngorm, getting a lot brighter now
Macdui is a bit of a mound, glad to be out of the cloud though:
Derry Cairngorm again, from the top this time:
Nice to be abouve the clouds for a while
:
Cairn:
Same route back, this was all in clag on the way here so good to finally see it:
Lairig Ghru:
Next hill, Cairn Gorm:
Back into the clag:
Eventually cleared again, looking back:
Winter skills group and the route to Cairn Gorm:
Looking South East, Carn Etchachan maybe?
Got to the cliffs, climbers on Fiacaill Buttress:
Over to Monadhliath:
Cairn Gorm:
Climbers heading down the quick way
:
Legs got a shock when I started ascending again, nice views for frequent 'camera' breaks though:
Cairn and snowmobiles at the top:
View South East, cloudy over there:
Today's route from to snowy ridge on the right to the Macdui mound on the left, then across to the cliffs and up to Cairn Gorm:
The cairn without all the masts marks the start of the descent route, a few smaller cairns then path to the busy restaurant:
Went to the right of the restaurant and followed the path down, didn't take long to see the car park:
Got back at 4, fairly easy walk for a couple of the highest Munros