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Gorms in the snow and clag

Gorms in the snow and clag


Postby Fife Flyer » Sat Oct 06, 2018 8:15 pm

Munros included on this walk: Mullach Clach a' Bhlàir, Sgòr Gaoith

Date walked: 01/10/2018

Time taken: 7 hours

Distance: 25 km

Ascent: 1105m

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With the weather being a bit 'unpredictable' and winter just round the corner, I had a chat with Parminder to see if he fancied venturing out. He was pencilled in for a baby sitting stint but used his powers of persuasion and handed the reigns to his deputy. I suggested a trip up to the western edge of the Cairngorms and he was more than happy as it would be 2 new balloons. I mentioned the weather and we were aware that it was forecast to rain at about 4pm so the plan was to leave Fife at 6am in a bid to try and beat the rain.
I had programmed the directions into my Satnav and even though the car is only 18 months old it doesn't have the latest A9 dualled section. The old turnoff for Kincraig is now obsolete on the new section of road and had I known that I would have turned off at Kingussie. This resulted in a bit of a detour as the first turnoff was the south turnoff for Aviemore.
We arrived at the car park and there were already about 6 cars parked up. We had a brief chat with a guy who was planning to head to Monadh Mor and we ended up following him up towards Carn Ban Mor.
The last time I did this route we did it anti clockwise and the weather was certainly much better.

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The car park at Achlean

[img]https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1980/44319681864_fffc1a9753_k.jpg[/img
The initial road before we venture uphill

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Achlean being renovated

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Good path uphill, nice gradual incline

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The way ahead

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Looking back and the views are opening up

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Parminder leading for a change

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The way ahead still obvious

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Looking back

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Looking back just as we reach the white stuff

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Getting whiter and into cloud soon

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Path still obvious

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Small cairn marks the crossroads, straight on for Monadh Mor, right for Mullach, we are going left

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Parminder lingering behind, conditions not ideal

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Snow/ice close up

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Summit appearing through the clag

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Parminder doing one of his unique poses, don't think it will catch on

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Was explaining to Parminder it is a very long way down and Loch Einich is down there

On the way back to the cairn at the crossroads, we had a bit of a navigational hiccup, we were following our steps in the snow - but somehow we lost them and ended up doing a circle round a standing stone and then started heading back the way we had come. The joys of walking on a flattish plateau with no visual references. It wasn't long before we were back on track and trudging towards Mullach.
Once we descended after passing the crossroad cairn, we finally got views and could see where we were going.

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Small burn to cross

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Bit of a boggy area

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Great view looking westish

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Another tiny burn to cross

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We were now on the motorway of paths that would take us almost to the summit of Mullach

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Cairn on Mullach Clach a'Bhlair

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Not the most exciting cairn

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Not often you get to see me

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Our descent route down the motorway

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Still going down, it had started raining now

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Landslide?

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Nearly on the flat terrain

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River Feshie had caused quite a bit of recent damage

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Glad we didn't have to cross the Feshie

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Nice walk back through the trees and following the Feshie

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Plenty of fungi

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More damage evident

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"Expert" river crossing

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The way back to the car

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Still following the Feshie

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Will be a tight squeeze in a few years

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Next river crossing, very shallow

Really enjoyable day, thanks as always to Parminder for his great company just a shame the weather didn't really play ball. Especially as the view from Sgor Gaoith is fantastic, just means Parminder will have to return.
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Fife Flyer
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2642
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Re: Gorms in the snow and clag

Postby parminder » Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:35 am

Well Done FF. Another good outing and script.. :clap:
parminder
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 78
Munros:272   Corbetts:23
Fionas:25   Donalds:89
Sub 2000:108   Hewitts:2
Joined: Nov 16, 2013

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