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The last moments of our holidays and the sun returned if only for one day, to give us the long awaited opportunity to visit the tors of Ben Avon. The majority of Munro baggers climb this mountain from Braemar side, starting from the car park in Keiloch on the Invercauld Estate. This "version" also allows adding Beinn A'Bhuird to the round. For us, this approach seemed inconvenient - over 2 hours drive each way from Inverness, and we have already climbed Beinn a'Bhuird on its own. So we started looking for other options for our Avon trip.
Tomintoul as a starting point looked much better for us. In early days of May we climbed
Cnap Chaochan Aitinn, a Graham situated virtually next to the bulk of Ben Avon. Not only did we enjoy superb views of the Cairngorm giants, but also investigated a possibility of using Glen Avon as an entrance to the Big A'n
The overall distance to cover is over 40km, so it's a longer route than the one from Keiloch, but thankfully, bikes can be used for over half the way (about 25km). Having cycled up a Corbett the week before, I wasn't afraid of another bike challenge.
On Saturday morning I was dragged out of bed by my overzealous husband shouting Tora! tora! The time has come!
It was indeed the day to explore tors! Being a panther I absolutely love scrambling over boulders and exploring rocky outcrops, so I didn't need much pressing.
In the end, we covered 42.5km, including 24.5km on bikes and 18km on foot. Time 8.5 hours, and that included all the tor explorations
Glen Avon track is a good one for cycling, tarmac mostly, dirt track towards the end but comfortable even for a rubbish cyclist like me. Views - fantastic:
I was surprised that I didn't need to get off my bike and push it on every uphill bit... Only a couple of times to pose for photos
Just past Inchrory, we stopped for the last time to enjoy the view of "our" mountain and the route we were to tackle. A track goes about 50m up the slope, then replaced by a path:
Having reached the Linn of Avon, we secured our bikes by the fence...
...and for a few minutes enjoyed the quiet solitude of this place:
...before embarking on the next meowing adventure!
Above the end of the track, there are a few different paths, ascending the slope at different angles. On the way up, we chose the one traversing slightly to the left. It was generally all right, a few short, wet sections. Higher up, all paths merge into one, more stony and pretty obvious, as it ascends the shoulder of Carn Fiaclach:
We admired the vast panorama behind us:
The path took us past the first of many tops, Meall Gainemh (we skipped this one) and soon we entered the world of tors:
As we continued towards Meur Gorm Crags, I was amazed by the surrounding landscape. Some of these boulders have unique shapes and one can easily identify them as familiar things like, for example, a sleeping pig:
This one I called "Big-eyed monkey":
I was tempted to slow down and take a detour to have a better look at some of these weird structures, but cloud was coming in from the west and it looked like we might encounter a shower... So we agreed, we'd reach the summit first, bag the Munro, and only then, time permitted, we would do some tor explorations
A happy panther:
Looking back to the crags of East Meur Gorm, perched on the edge of the cliffs, I made a mental note to pay them a visit on the way back:
Yes, definitely there is plenty to explore here!
We climbed to the summit of West Meur Gorm Crag, not because we collect tops, but because we hoped it would be a good viewpoint. Only a small rocky outcrop marks the summit, we saw other walkers leaving this top as we arrived. The mighty Ben Avon was busy that day, but no surprise as it was a June Saturday and a good opportunity to bag a remote Munro.
Cnap Chaochan Aitinn from West Meur Gorm Crag:
From West Meur Gorm, we descended to a col (983m). From here, the summit tor lies about 2km SW as crow flies, but I spotted another pair of walkers heading due west towards Stob Bac an Fhurain and decided to follow their footsteps (thanks, guys, for the suggestion, whoever you are
). It meant visiting the aforementioned top first. And just as well, because as soon as we began traversing above the steep slopes of Corrie nan Gabhar (there is an obvious path), we discovered this superb view, down to Lochan nan Gabhar:
We spent some time scrambling over the twin tors of Stob Bac an Fhurain, despite windy conditions - I absolutely loved this tor madness!
Looking east from Stob Bac an Fhurain, to the craggy world of Ben Avon:
To reach the summit tor, we had to return to the main ridge, about 700m. It looked like more exploring was waiting for us up there:
The Cairngorms panorama, Bynack More and Cairn Gorm the most obvious, and the northern shoulder of Beinn a'Bhuird in the foreground:
View back to Stob Bac an Fhurain from near the summit tors:
The first summit tor, at 1136m, was easy to scramble onto:
...and we took another 10 or 15 minutes of fun and games here, but the ultimate summit looked even more interesting:
Another 10 minutes later, on the very top of Ben Avon (Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe) I was celebrating my 176th Munro. Kevin was on his 191, but because we only had one camera, he wouldn't let me photograph him
We were lucky to snap some photos of the tors only - just after we scrambled down, other walkers began to arrive, some from the other side, some catching up with us. All right, they might have been faster, but we had more fun on the tors and our explorations were far from over!
The tors before the invasion:
One more tor sculpture, I called "Sad baldie and a dog":
Beinn a'Bhuird:
Zoom to Lochnagar:
it was still a bit windy, so we found a sheltered spot amongst the boulders and sat down to rest and have lunch. High cloud was passing over and the temperature felt more like autumn, but generally, conditions were not too bad
For most walkers, the return route would simply mean retracing steps on obvious paths. For us, it meant more detours and more posing with tors! Like this one, at 1147m near the true summit, which is not named on the map:
On the way back, we almost stepped on a family of ptarmigans - mommy and three young chicks. The kids scattered around so fast, that we had no chance for a photo. Mum circled us, pretending to have a broken wing (they do that to distract the predators from chasing the young ones), but because we were not interested in catching her, either, she soon ignored us and run after her babies
Good luck, feathery friend!
No chance for a ptarmigan video, let's film the tors
Weather began to improve again as we walked past West Meur Gorm Crag, and I reminded Kevin about our earlier idea to pop in to East Meur Gorm - he was all for it! But it was me who reached the rocks first and got all paws in it!
EMGC is a fantastic rocky ridge with lots of boulders to climb over. I felt like a kid in a playground and couldn't get enough of it! A few photos just to prove the point - it's worth to spend more time on a mountain rather than rush up and down! Especially in case of Avon. I'm really glad we picked Tomintoul approach, it gave us a chance to visit all these playgrounds en route
Looking south along the ridge:
Looking north:
Ready for more fun!
On top of a naughty rock
This one I called "Horse head", Stob Bac an Fhurain in the background:
Every tor had to be photographed and investigated
We took the full advantage of improving weather - the cloud has passed and the sun was shining nicely - summer at last!
Watch where you're going...
The lower top (906m) and view north, with the characteristic shape of Ben Rinnes on the horizon:
Eventually, Kevin dragged me down to the ground, otherwise I would have played with those rocks forever! We had a quick snack and set off to descend to Glen Avon, which came without any nasty surprises. We enjoyed lovely weather for the rest of the day:
Back in the saddles, we took about an hour to cycle back to Delnabo car park. It's such a nice place, Glen Avon, that speeding through it without slowing down to enjoy the views should be rendered a criminal offence!
It was, without a doubt, one of the best days on the hills in 2015 so far. I must highly recommend doing Ben Avon from this side (if you don't mind cycling). The tor lurking is really worth the effort, and the view down to Lochan nan Gabhar is breathtaking.
Our summer hols might have been a bit disappointing Munro-wise. We only bagged 6 M's in two weeks, but that due to poor weather. On the other hand, we also climbed 4 Corbetts and 4 Grahams, so it wasn't too bad after all.
I still have three TR's to write from July, the first one includes some underrated Corbetts of Braemar area. So the story is not over yet