The Glas Moel 6 (or was it 8)

[clivew]

This is an ideal circuit to complete when the visibility is fairly good; parts of the walk are pretty featureless so being able to see the route ahead from a distance is helpful. Checked out the mountain weather forecast on Friday night and it predicted a fairly clear morning followed by rain spreading across in mid afternoon, as usual the forecast was spot on. I reached the small car park on the A93 2Km North of the Glenshee ski Centre at 10.00am had a quick coffee and chocy bar whilst lacing up my boots and set off for the first Munro at 10.15. I crossed the stream on the old bridge and followed the well worn track towards Carn an Tuirc making the summit in slightly over an hour. There was a good reason for this quick pace and it was nothing to do with trying to set a record; the midges alongside the stream and almost up to the scree below the summit were voracious to say the least. I think it was the damp humid conditions combined with a total lack of any wind that made them so troublesome. This was the first time this year I had been bothered by midges so mustn't complain.
The summit is marked by a small cairn and from here I picked up the wide track leading to my next target, my original plan was to by-pass Carn of Claise and head straight for Tolmount but before I knew it Carn of Claise was in site so that became my second Munro of the day. The walk between the two Munros is very easy, it drops about 65m and then climbs about 120m so for all intents and purposes it's a flat walk. Carn of Claise is easy to find sitting on the top of a small pile of loose rock with a good sized cairn. From Cairn of Claise I followed the broad track roughly eastward before cutting across country and heading for the summit of Tolmount. The two are only about 4K apart and I followed two other wallkers across the bog, they seemed to be heading in the right direction. As you get closer to Tolmount you can see the path leading up to the summit with great views down Glen Callater to the Loch. There was intermittent cloud but nothing which lasted more than a few minutes. The Mountain Hares must have had a good breeding season as there were loads of them around Tolmount and further on in my trek I must have seen dozens; unfortunately most were out of range of my old camera although if you have good eyesight you might just pick one out in one of my pics.
I stopped and had a break on Tolmount, cheese sandwiches for a change. My wife cant understand how I can eat cheese sandwiches almost every day of the week, I try to explain that I vary the content between cheese and ham, cheese and pickle, cheeses and tomato and today it was cheese and cress.
The route between Tolmount and my fourth Munro, Tom Buidhe, was very straightforward, the two are only a couple of K's apart with not much of a fall and climb.
From the top of Tom Buidhe you can see Carn of Claise poking over the top of the ridge. I didn't intend to climb it again but followed the clear path heading in the general direction of Carn of Claise as I wanted to pick up the path from there to Glas Moel which was going to be Munro number five. The sky was getting ominously dark by now and I was expecting to have to get out the waterproofs before long. It was a good walk back towards Carn of Claise and I was trying to head slightly south of the summit but by now it was out of sight and when I eventually came up over the ridge the summit of Carn of Claise was right in front of me. At this point it started to rain so I headed back up to the Cairn to get out my waterproofs, met a few other people there doing the same. From Cairn of Claise the path towards Glas Maol was easy to pick out although you have to be careful not to follow it to far to the left or you will end up in the Claenlochan Glen. Eventually you see the top of the ski tow and just south east of that you can follow the line of old fence posts which leads you to the summit of Glas Maol. By now the rain had stopped so off came the waterproofs; I was wondering how many more times I would go through this routine before the day was out.
From Glas Maol The sixth Munro of the day stands out clearly to the South West; Creag Leacach is the most interesting of all the Munros on this circuit with a good rocky clearly defined top. The path is marked by the old county boundary wall and all you have to do is follow the wall all the way to the summit. I reached the top of the last Munro at just before 3.30.
The sky was very dark to the North West over Cairnwell and Carn Aosda but the weather appeared to be coming from the North East and in that direction there were patches of blue sky and it looked as if the walk back was going to be dry.
From Creag Leacach there are a number of options to get back to the start point: option 1is to head straight down to the car park on the A93 just below the devils elbow but that leaves you with a 5k trek along the road to the start point. Option 2 is to head North East towards Meall Odhar but my option was to follow the line of fence posts which start as the old boundary wall finishes and head back over Glas Maol to the top of the ski tow. From here follow the wooden fence around to its end and pick up the path which leads along the clearly defined ridge to Sron na Gaoithe, from here there is a good path leading directly down to the footbridge over the river and into the car park. It was 5.00 pm when I reached the car park after another great day out on the Cairgorms; I must admit my legs were aching a bit by now but as the title to this walk suggests I had climbed 6 separate Munros, two of them twice. I stopped off at the Spittal of Glenshee Hotel on the way back to Edinburgh and had a well deserved pint, I don't think it touched the sides on the way down.

Carn an Tuirc from the start point

Looking back to Carn Aosda from Carn an Tuirc

Tolmount

Top end of Coire Loch Kander from below Tolmount (spot the hare)

Loch Callater from Tolmount

Craig Leacach the final Munro of the day

Top of the ski tow with Sron na Gaoithe below

Sron na Gaoithe

[davetherave]

Seemed to let this one escape my attention. Nice big route you managed there,good effort.
Finishing at 5pm should have left plenty time to make a start on the Cairnwell 3!!

Thanks for posting Dave.

[clivew]

Thanks Dave; by the time I reached the car my legs were about shot but I really enjoyed the walk. I met a number of different people on various summits and due to the the route I took bumped into some of them a number of times, dead lucky with the weather though. Looks like this weekend is going to be a bit wet so will have to be careful to avoid any river crossings.
Clive