The Fast, The Slow and The Mountains - Cairn Gorm
Munros: Cairn Gorm
Date walked: 01/03/2024
Time taken: 7.5 hours
Distance: 6.5km
A last-minute decision to book on a two-day winter skills course at Glenmore Lodge led to an unexpected, but welcome, Munro bagged.
Meg (the fast) was not impressed when she learned that she was not allowed to go on the expedition – that it was only for humans. Sometimes, being a dog sucks, even when you are an intelligent Border Collie! So, just the one slow human, joined by a group of five other, significantly faster humans, and one excellent instructor (also human 🤣).
The first day of the course was spent learning about avalanche awareness, followed by battling the elements, getting used to wearing crampons, self-arrest techniques, and trying to stand up against the wind on Fiacaill Coire an t-Sneachda!
The second day was spent practising crampon and ice axe work, navigation and digging snow holes, before summiting Cairn Gorm.
We set off from the Coire na Ciste parking area at 09:30, enjoying the glorious winter sun, and headed up the path that runs along the east side of the Allt na Ciste.
The path is well defined but very boggy, although fortunately, largely frozen on this occasion.
There is a higher path marked on the OS map that could be used instead, but we were headed for a small burn that joins the Allt na Ciste at 690m. Once reached, we got into our crampons and with ice axes in hand, started to climb the frozen burn, practicing different methods of ascent along the way.
From looking at the OS map afterwards, I believe the incline was around 15%.
It was a short section that took us to a height of around 820m, where we stopped to re-fuel and admire the views!
Next, our route took us south-east then south across pathless terrain, mainly heather and rock, to reach the Munro Top of Cnap Coire na Spreidhe at 1150m. The snow was light, with patches of frozen boggy ground along the way. This section provided a good opportunity to practice some basic navigation.
Heading away from the Top, our instructor was keen to show us the site of a recent human-triggered avalanche at Ciste Mhearad – a great opportunity to consolidate our newly acquired knowledge by visiting a “live” site.
Before the final section up to Cairn Gorm summit, we descended about 50m to practice digging snow holes (much fun was had by all ).
The weather had been blue-sky all day, with no wind, and although the forecast was for cloud mid-afternoon on the summit, it remained very clear, with brilliant visibility (a complete contrast to the previous day of the course when we were battered by 50-mile an hour winds and spindrift).
The views from the summit were excellent, a great bonus, especially for some in our party, for whom it was their first Munro .
After leaving the summit we headed down towards Ptarmigan Station, on what looked like a newly-constructed “motorway” – a wide granite path, with substantial wooden posts lining the way! To say it’s an eyesore would be an understatement . On the plus side, I don’t think it would be possible to get lost, regardless of how bad the weather was!
Although it was only about 160m of descent, the path was icy, making walking difficult. Off to the side of the path the rocky ground had a thin covering of ice and snow, which was at times easier, but I was wishing that I’d packed my micro spikes.
The last 460m of descent to Base Station car park was uninspiring, but on a well-constructed path, fortunately without the ugly poles lining it that the higher path has.
We arrived at Base Station car park just before 17:00 where our bus was waiting to take us back to Glenmore Lodge for coffee, cake and a de-brief before heading home. 😋
The two days spent at Glenmore Lodge were fantastic ! I learned so much in such a short space of time; I would thoroughly recommend the course, and our instructor (Emma) was brilliant – clear, concise instruction, and lots of patience .
One more Munro ticked off was the icing on the cake .
Meg (the fast) was not impressed when she learned that she was not allowed to go on the expedition – that it was only for humans. Sometimes, being a dog sucks, even when you are an intelligent Border Collie! So, just the one slow human, joined by a group of five other, significantly faster humans, and one excellent instructor (also human 🤣).
The first day of the course was spent learning about avalanche awareness, followed by battling the elements, getting used to wearing crampons, self-arrest techniques, and trying to stand up against the wind on Fiacaill Coire an t-Sneachda!
The second day was spent practising crampon and ice axe work, navigation and digging snow holes, before summiting Cairn Gorm.
We set off from the Coire na Ciste parking area at 09:30, enjoying the glorious winter sun, and headed up the path that runs along the east side of the Allt na Ciste.
The path is well defined but very boggy, although fortunately, largely frozen on this occasion.
There is a higher path marked on the OS map that could be used instead, but we were headed for a small burn that joins the Allt na Ciste at 690m. Once reached, we got into our crampons and with ice axes in hand, started to climb the frozen burn, practicing different methods of ascent along the way.
From looking at the OS map afterwards, I believe the incline was around 15%.
It was a short section that took us to a height of around 820m, where we stopped to re-fuel and admire the views!
Next, our route took us south-east then south across pathless terrain, mainly heather and rock, to reach the Munro Top of Cnap Coire na Spreidhe at 1150m. The snow was light, with patches of frozen boggy ground along the way. This section provided a good opportunity to practice some basic navigation.
Heading away from the Top, our instructor was keen to show us the site of a recent human-triggered avalanche at Ciste Mhearad – a great opportunity to consolidate our newly acquired knowledge by visiting a “live” site.
Before the final section up to Cairn Gorm summit, we descended about 50m to practice digging snow holes (much fun was had by all ).
The weather had been blue-sky all day, with no wind, and although the forecast was for cloud mid-afternoon on the summit, it remained very clear, with brilliant visibility (a complete contrast to the previous day of the course when we were battered by 50-mile an hour winds and spindrift).
The views from the summit were excellent, a great bonus, especially for some in our party, for whom it was their first Munro .
After leaving the summit we headed down towards Ptarmigan Station, on what looked like a newly-constructed “motorway” – a wide granite path, with substantial wooden posts lining the way! To say it’s an eyesore would be an understatement . On the plus side, I don’t think it would be possible to get lost, regardless of how bad the weather was!
Although it was only about 160m of descent, the path was icy, making walking difficult. Off to the side of the path the rocky ground had a thin covering of ice and snow, which was at times easier, but I was wishing that I’d packed my micro spikes.
The last 460m of descent to Base Station car park was uninspiring, but on a well-constructed path, fortunately without the ugly poles lining it that the higher path has.
We arrived at Base Station car park just before 17:00 where our bus was waiting to take us back to Glenmore Lodge for coffee, cake and a de-brief before heading home. 😋
The two days spent at Glenmore Lodge were fantastic ! I learned so much in such a short space of time; I would thoroughly recommend the course, and our instructor (Emma) was brilliant – clear, concise instruction, and lots of patience .
One more Munro ticked off was the icing on the cake .
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Meiklie Mist
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