Carn na Caim A' Bhuidheanach Bheag

[Kenny Monaghan]

Alex, Johnny and I headed up to the Cairngorms to do an easy double, it had to be easy, Cameron McNeish's book says 2 Munro's with a total ascent of only 610m. We reached lay by 87 on the A9 and set off across the road, a bit of cloud was still covering the hills so we couldn't see what we were getting. Within minutes of walking along the road that starts the path we were greeted by loads of Grouse so things were looking promising.

Sometime later we made it through the cloud and headed for the summit of Carn na Caim the view was awesome with cloud below us and the tops of the surrounding mountains in plain sight. We weren't as lucky on A' Bhuidheanach Bheag by the time we got on it the cloud was on the top and there was no view.

There was a lot of snow on some of the slopes on the way up both hills which made the walking both awkward and hard going at times, the snow wasn't frozen enough to wear crampons so on some occasions we were sinking and on others the snow held our weight.

The easy 610m walk was actually 1022m, we did get some good images of a mountain hare and I'm sure we got a glimpse of an eagle as it soared towards us from the clouds but almost immediately turned away from us back into the cloud.

Note to self, don't trust Cameron McNeish's book again

[jupe1407]

From what I remember of McNeish's book, he spends a paragraph telling us why the hills are boring without really saying much about the route.

I think it's a sub 700m total ascent if you use two cars and follow the fenceline across the road from Coire Dhomhain and finish a few miles up the road at Layby 87.