An Socach, Beinn Lutharn Mhor

[mark w]

our_route.gpx

Hi,
Woke up to a nice Sunday morning and thought it would be a good day on the hills. Left the Hotel at Braemar and headed West for the car park at Inverey. Jumped on the bike and took the 8km track South to the Altanour Lodge. I left the bike here, crossed the bridge beside the lodge and headed South straight towards An Socach. The weather at this point was good it was warm and I was wearing a t-shirt.

DSCN3241.JPG

DSCN3242.JPG

Got to the summit of An Socach and the weather turned for the worse. Started raining heavy and the visibility went very bad. I met another party of people at the top that were calling it a day and just heading back down. I decided to try for my second target Beinn Lutharn Mhor.
From An Socach I headed South down the scree/snow, couldn't see 20 feet ahead of me and was relying on my compass. After a while I knew I was near Loch nan Eun couldn't see it but I heard the seagulls, knew they wouldn't be flying in this weather they would be on the loch. Round the North end of the loch and heading for Beinn Lutharn Mhor summit.

DSCN3244.JPG

From here I was intending to also do Carn Bach but with the poor weather and I was walking by myself I thought I had pushed my luck far enough today so I headed NE off the hill and back to Altanour Lodge to get my bike.

[LeithySuburbs]

Good show for battling to the 2nd munro. In the conditions you described, the peat bogs between Beinn Iutharn Mhor and Carn Bhac would have been tiresome, and the descent off BIM unnerving with little visibility.

Leaving Carn Bhac is no bad move as it can be done in a good circuit from Inverey via Top of the Battery. The summit also gives a great panorama of the Cairngorm massif and you definitely want to see that.