Plan A: Creag Meagaidh Circuit

[Alastair S]

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Another Granite City Hillwalkers meet and another new hut for me. This time the Scottish Mountaineering Club Raeburn hut between Laggan & Dalwhinnie. Fine apart from no hot water - some new problem that they hadn't seen fit to inform us about. Anyway the forecast for the Saturday was fairly dire so we came up with no fewer than four options for the next day - plan D being to go to Aviemore, wonder about, eat cake & browse the outdoor shops. As it turned out Saturday dawned fine so we choose plan A: the 3 Munro Creag Meagaidh circuit. The three of us (Kay, Elaine & I) were on our way in fair (if fairly cloudy by now) weather by 8:40.

Approach To Coire Ardair



Leaving Aberarder Forest



Decided to tackle Creag Meagaidh first - if the weather turned foul we would just bag the one and return the way we came. An hour & a half latter we were stopped for lunch #1 by the shore of Lochan a'Choire under the impressive cliffs of Coire Ardair.


Coire Ardair



Coire Ardair And The Window



Coire Ardair Pinnacle



And so up through The Window - fairly steep, a few loose bits and bouldery at the top but not as bad as it looked from down by the lochain. However the rain started as we made our way up and with it blowing on our backs I didn't risk getting a lens full of rain. But the view down from near the top is fabulous. On though the ravine and then left up to Creag Meagaidh's extensive plateau. We kept near the crags for some magnificent views back down to Lochan a'Choire. The rain was patchy at this point so managed to get a few more piccies.


View West From Creag Meagaidh



On Creag Meagaidh



Coire Ardair From Above



The across the plateau, past Mad Meg's Cairn and onto the summit for lunch #2. By now the cloud & rain had settled upon us and remained that way for the rest of the way. However the rain wasn't too heavy so we carried on to Stob Poite Coire Ardair & Carn Liath. We got one or two glimpses through the cloud along this broad ridge - must be a real treat in decent weather.


Creag Meagaidh summit



One More To Go - Leaving one of two cairns on Stob Poite Coire Ardair



We didn't pick up a path down from Carn Liath for quite a way. And we could have done with a machete for the soggy path down though the Aberarder Forest. A day when company really helped keep the spirits up. From what I could tell this is a real cracker of a route. Well worth another visit.

Flick set over here.

[gammy leg walker]

Once again Alastair your pictures are awesome,looks like you managed to miss the worst of the rain for most parts.

[monty]

Excellent photos Alastair.
So thats what the cliffs and crags and window look like? We were up there on Saturday and couldnay see 10ft

[old danensian]

Thanks for the report and photos - and like Monty, for letting us know what it looked like up there when we visited in the clag on Saturday

OD

[Ray Mackay]

Lovely photo's and super report, Valmar1965 and I did the circuit last month going in the counter clockwise route finishing with Creag Meagaidh and down and out through the window, the night before i had taken the battery out of my camera to charge it and forgot to put it back in the next morning, thats what i get for having a few beers the night before
anyway, my camera is a Canon EOS 50D so it was like carrying a dead weight about as it's a heavy chunky camera with a big lens, don't know why i bother really as i can not get photo's that are any where near as good as yours, maybe i should just use the mobile phone camera in future, oh i left that in the car that morning and didn't realise until first Munro summit, woops, must do better

any good tips on how to get these amazing photo's so good much appreciated,

[kinley]

Some dramatic and atmospheric shots there.

[U059361]

Good to see someone doing it this way round, will definitely have a look when we are up at Roy Bridge in July.
Good report and great pics, thanks a lot.

[Alastair S]

Thanks all

any good tips on how to get these amazing photo's so good much appreciated

Learn to use Photoshop. I use the affordable (~ £55) Elements version. Shoot in RAW, ensure you don't over-expose and process to balance the fore-ground & the sky. I use two methods: mostly I create layers for the sky & fore-ground. Occasionally I develop the RAW image twice (one for sky, one for FG) & then use the exposure merge facility in PS. It all takes time of course.

I had Elements for about a year and just used the auto button things will very variable results. Eventually I got a book about how to use it and within 2 chapters I learnt how to create & use layers and I was off and running. Still haven't read past the first 3 chapters of the book.

[Ray Mackay]

Thanks all

any good tips on how to get these amazing photo's so good much appreciated

Learn to use Photoshop. I use the affordable (~ £55) Elements version. Shoot in RAW, ensure you don't over-expose and process to balance the fore-ground & the sky. I use two methods: mostly I create layers for the sky & fore-ground. Occasionally I develop the RAW image twice (one for sky, one for FG) & then use the exposure merge facility in PS. It all takes time of course.

I had Elements for about a year and just used the auto button things will very variable results. Eventually I got a book about how to use it and within 2 chapters I learnt how to create & use layers and I was off and running. Still haven't read past the first 3 chapters of the book.

Thanks Alastair, I have the camera but not the skills or technique, but i do want to take my photo's to the next level, any where near as good as your's and i would be happy, so layers are the way forward and if you learnt how to do them within 2 chapters of the book, this sounds like i might be capable of doing myself, great and thanks again for your advise, .RAW images from now on and practise in Elements