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Tolmount and Tom Buidhe have been on our radar for two and a half years, we had planned to include them on our trip around the Glenshee munros hoping to do all nine of them in one go, as it turned out we were concerned we'd run out of time so elected to do seven of them and leave these two for a later date.
So, with Sunday looking half decent, we decided to give them a go from the little parking spot by the old bridge just below the ski centre at around NO 148800.
Arriving around 8:30am we were ready for off ten mins later, some of the mountains were capped with cloud and there was a cool breeze.
Carn an Tuirc.
Part of our planned descent route.
Carn an Tuirc was not really part of our route today as we'd done it, the plan was to work our way to the ruined Carn an Tuirc hut and pick up the land rover track at around NO 183805, when we got to the point where the path cuts round it was too much of a temptation to continue on the path we were on and include C an T, as it turned out it was the better choice with the cloud down, it saved stumbling around looking for the pile of planks that the hut is now.
On the summit we were in the mist I took a bearing to make sure we set off in the right direction towards the landrover track and the bealach between us and Cairn of Claise, there's not much of a path up here but we managed to hit the track no problem and just headed towards Cairn of Claise and hopefully find the path that would take us to our intended targets.
After a bit of double checking on the way we got to the path, found a fence post and then another heading in the right direction so we were off heading for the bealach around NO 206795.
Every now and then the cloud thinned enough to see where we were, the lower we got the mist started to reveal our intended mountains, Tolmount was the first to clear completly so we chose to do that one first, we could see the path quite clearly snaking up to the summit, Tom Buidhe was still clagged but as we got higher up on Tolmount the cloud would lift off the summit of Tom Buidhe then cover again, by the time we reached the cairn on Tolmount Tom Buidhe was clear of cloud and small breaks were appearing.
On Tolmount.
Tom Buidhe with the cloud just about to clear the summit.
Although the clouds were still fairly low we could see most of the summits around us, even Lochnagar was clear.
Clearing.
Looking towards Glen Callater.
East clearing.
Looking over to Cairn of Claise we could make out the path we'd travelled over on, it wasn't the one that went over Ca Whims but it was probably the alternative one used in better visability and just before the summit of Tolmount we noticed a larger path coming in to our right, that's the one we took on our way over to Tom Buidhe, it all fell into place from there on.
We had a snack, took a few photo's and then left the summit of Tolmount, at the split in the paths we went straight on into the bealach, its quite boggy over this section but the way ahead is obvious. At the other side of the bealach the path starts a raising traverse and soon joins the path from Cairn of Claise. By now the sun was out and it had really warmed up, it was very pleasant indeed. We arrived at the cairn on Tom Buidhe, thirty minutes summit to summit.
Tom Buidhe.
Really clearing now.
At the summit the views were really opening up, Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn seemed close enough to touch, we could just make out Carn an t-Sadairt Mor, these were three of the five we were hoping to be on tomorrow.
Tolmount.
We set off for Cairn of Claise now over a much dryer mountain path, easy going heading west for about two miles.
Looking back to Tom Buidhe from the slopes of Cairn of Claise.
It took an hour to reach Cairn of Claise, once there we found a sheltered place, took the rucksacs off and just sat and relaxed, the sun was out, we could see for miles so there was no need to rush we spent a good half hour enjoying the peace and quiet.
Cairn of Claise.
Carn an Tuirc.
Views from Cairn of Claise, the weather much improved.
Relaxing.
But we had to go down, we left the summit heading towards Glas Maol, our descent route was heading down the NW grassy ridge towards Sron na Gaoithe and then back to the old bridge from there.
Cairn of Claise.
Carn an Tuirc, left, Cairn of Claise, right.
There's a good path all the way down which leads to the newer footbridge just above the old stone one and once over this the car park is just above you.
Looking down to the road and bridge from Sron na Gaoithe.
Carn Aosda and the A93.
Carn an Tuirc, now free of cloud.
This is a very enjoyable walk, not a long one compared to many around these parts, it's a good opportunity to get four munro's under your belt with the option of more if you want to and the start point is at around 500m so the car does some of the work for you.
Not a bad start to our holiday, now lets see how the weather behaves.