A trip to the Cairngorms

I picked up the car – a Megane – and drove west from Aberdeen. I stopped at Alford to buy provisions at around 7p.m, and again in the Nethy Bridge area to change (clothes). I parked up at the lower car park on the Coire Cas road, just above the tree line of the Queen’s Forest, and pitched my tent in an Eden of diverse vegetation down by the stream, some half mile from the car.

Next day, it was gloomy. I slogged up into Coire Cas, taking a steady pace, arriving at the Ptarmigan around 11a.m (after a start at 8.23a.m) and at the summit of Cairn Gorm a while after that. On the summit I looked at the automated weather station, and had a chat on the mobile with a friend.

From there to Ben Macdui took a long time, with some close compass work in dense mist, and even some use of the GPS. At one point I had to cross a large snowfield, in near white-out conditions. After Macdui, more compass work brought me to the cliffs, which could not be missed, and thence to the right down the ridge, into the valley. This was a wild and deserted place. I camped at Dunbeg Bridge or thereabouts, and I experienced some difficulty in fording the river, which cost me half an hour backtracking to the bridge. It was pouring with rain and I was bone tired, though happy enough, after a hill day of eight and a half hours. I met four people all day.

It rained on and off all night, and I was a little dismayed to find that after this second night, my tent was still soaking wet (on the outside of course). I had difficulty sleeping because of light, and because of sore hips. I took brufen in the morning, also to help with my feet. So after a wet strike, a little before 8a.m., I started off up the Lairig Ghru. There was some heavy rain as I walked in, fortunately at my back. Up and over the pass was not so time consuming as I had thought it would be, and I was taking lunch around 1p.m at the Sinclair memorial at the foot of the north side of the pass, in a rare blast of sunshine. Thence across to the “Charlamain Gap” which is just that – a dry gap – and down to the car in pouring rain.