Our blog - Cairngorm and Ben Macdui, Jan'17

A blog of our mountain adventures in Scotland, hiking, biking, rock-scrambling and more !

Cairngorm and Ben Macdui

29 January 2017

A wonderful snowy covered day on Cairngorm and Ben Macdui. Richard Kermode was leading, here's a tale of the days ...

Lawers

I met up with Sean, Kerr and Scott at the Cairngorm Ski centre after we had all had an interesting and icy drive to get there with lots of fresh snow from Saturday. We did a quick equipment check before setting off along the path towards Coire an Lochain with many other walkers and climbers heading out with the promise of good weather.

It didn't take us long to begin our ascent to the plateau in a good amount of fresh snow though the walkers ahead of us were leaving a pleasant trail through the snow! As we reached the plateau we also emerged from the shadows into the sunshine which was fantastic so a stop for some food and drink before climbing over towards the March Burn on our way to Ben Macdui. There was a think cloud covering us all the way to the summit of Macdui though it was still very bright.

Lawers

There were people appearing all over the place and the navigation was made easier by the momentary clearing of the cloud and several groups ahead of us making a trail across the plateau. We enjoyed a hearty lunch on the summit with some bright spells though the views eluded us whilst at the second highest point in Scotland. It didn't take us long to drop back down to the March Burn where we took a lovely quiet line over towards the rim of the northern corries and slowly emerged from the cloud into the glorious sunshine and clear skies that were over Cairngorm all day so it seemed.

After a rest to rearrange layers and top up the fuel tank we enjoyed a stunning walk around the rim of Coire an t-Sneachda and on up to the summit of Cairngorm where we enjoyed great views in every direction. We had the place to ourselves which was a real bonus given how many folk we had seen out and about. It was tempting to stay on the top longer, but as the light was starting to fade we made a quick descent back to the cars to finish a brilliant day walking in the wintery Cairngorms!

More photos by Richard are here on Flickr along with some by Steven and John who were also on the Cairngorms at the same time.

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