cairngorm overnighter

[madrock289]

Early start on a Thursday morining, just what the doctor ordered. I was planning to be up and in the car by 5am for a 5:30 pick up in Aberdeen but it never works out like that! A lttle after ten past 5 i left the house to drive from Cruden Bay south to Aberdeen. The morning weather here already promising great things for the next few days so i was pleased with that at least. I arrived in Aberdeen at Stve's house a little after the planned time of half past! I quickly ate a banana which was my breakfast for the day. Steve came out to the car looking a lot fresher than me, put his bag in the boot and we left. Spirits were high on the drive to Aviemore which was more than we could say about our enthusiasm for the weather which very rapidly degraded to a heavy downpour. I continuously assured myself that the weather would brighten and that it was just a passing shower etc.

We arrived at the car park at the Cairngorm Ski Centre and the weather still hadnt changed. I felt the same gloomy feeling everyone does when you have an overnighter in the wild and its hammering down outside. It never helped the fact that Steve had said the 'R' word at least 5 times on the drive up.. Amateurs!!

Jackets on we left the car park to make the quick ascent up Cairngorm. The walk up was uneventful but the good news was that the cloud had started to lift. By the time we got to the summit cairn the cloud had almost completely lifted. Happy we soldiered on towards Ban Macdui via Stob Coire an t-Sneachda, great views and a wee bit of snow left on the hill. We ploughed on through various snowfields, one of which i successfully managed to fall through! The final ascent to Macdui was covered in snow aswell so we just hand railed around it to make things a bit easier going.

Lunch on the summit, tesco's cheese and bacon sandwich, clear sky and great views.

We descended down into Loch Etchachan and stopped again for a breif break, by now the hills were busying up an we had already encountered on school group trudging up the corrie to the summit of Ben Macdui. A mixture of smiles and frowns showed us that some of the participants were not all there by choice.. Ha ha.

Route direct up the spine of Beinn Mheadhoin was the next plan. An hour later we were sat on the fortress like summit rock! We then descended down the North East slope towards Loch A'an to find a location for an overnight campsite. After a bit of scree running and a couple of near falls we had reached the mouth of Glen Avon. A nice wee spot was found on the south side of the water to set up camp. By 5pm we had the tent up, the stove on and the beer cooling in the water. The food went down a treat after some 18km of wallking that day but the beer was just heavely. Note to self, its worth the extra weight for a little luxury on a night time!

After a night of being woken up by restless steve we got up for the day ahead at about 5ish. I say about 5ish because i had stupidly managed to change the setting on my watch to dual time so was reading the time for some far off european/middle eastern country. The first challenge of the day was getting fed and watered. Once that had been done the next problem was very evidnt... Crossing the water which at this time off year was a wee bit cold!! Socks and boots off, thrown across the water in steves case, we made our way across the water. My spot proved to be a bit deeper than planned and i was dreading the inevitable soaking and freezing of my delicates!! Successfully across the water we geared up again and made our way to the saddle. Once at he saddle we made a very simple command decision to dump the bags and make a sprint for the summit of Bynack More. This ascent went without any incident although we did attract some strange looks arriving at th summit from a lone walker, probably due to the fact that we were stood there in just jackets with a small botle of water each and a map tucked away in my pocket. WE leftthe summit via Bynack Beg and then headed back to the bags. Once the we were back at the bags we again geared up and then headed up the side of Cairngorm. within an hour we were at the Ptarmigan restaurant having the last of our luch and heading back the car after a great little trip. Thankfully the weather had been on side from the summit of Cairngorm on day 1 to our arrival back at the car!

A great couple of days, roll on the next trip!

[Jock McJock]

That looked like a cracking couple of days. Really starting to fancy this sort of thing myself. Just need to get myself some gear etc and start planning where to go.

[monty]

Thats a great report madrock....
The pictures are good but I like to see the GPX track on the map. It really explains the route and nature of the walk.
Excellent stuff

This ascent went without any incident although we did attract some strange looks arriving at th summit from a lone walker, probably due to the fact that we were stood there in just jackets with a small botle of water each and a map tucked away in my pocket.

If I was that lone walker and two guys approached me wearing only jackets, I would be off like a shot

[kinley]

Big walk to lug a 4.5kg tent!

Great part of the world though - must try and get a camp in thereabouts sometime

[madrock289]

Its well worht the carry for loch a'an. I have stayed there before when climbing but only used a bivvy bag. This time i had no choice as it was my pals first time wild camping!! Next time i will sacrifice the tent for more beer ha ha ha

[Paul Webster]

I've gone light and used the Shelter Stone with two friends.... not too bad after you get over the initial shock of having to crawl in

[madrock289]

Ha ha! sweet. Almost had to consider that myself when i was climbing one year but opted for a night time walk out to make it to the Vault for a dance!!