Cairn Gorm & Beinn Mheadhoin - Photo Gallery
It was -8C when I arrived at Aviemore Youth Hostel on Friday, the moonlight had been very bright on the long drive north along the A9. My expectation was for a very cold weekend, was I well enough equipped and prepared for another Scottish epic. Do my Scottish friends only invite me on their most challenging works, can the fell walker cope with some real mountains and real weather? We met our guide Lindsay at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning and drove to the car park at Coire Cas, the centre for skiing in the area although there wasn't enough snow for anyone to be skiing. We were winter ready with full winter clothing, ice axes, crampons and head torches in the highly likely even that it would be dark before we finished our walk.
The car park is half way up Cairn Gorm and there are many paths and ski lifts going up the hillside. There is even a mountain railway that takes you close to the summit of Cairn Gorm but if you go up on the train they won't let you on to the mountain and they don't let walkers get on the train to go down. We walked along the track by the side of the railway, it had warmed up to -5C when we met Lindsay and there was some ice on the track where snow had melted and re-frozen. Having dressed for a deep freeze we got quite warm walking up the sheltered corrie and some of the layers had to be removed for a while.
Where the track turned off towards the Ptarmigan Restaurant at the railway terminus we turned towards the Fiacaill a'Choire Chais ridge, a pathless traverse in a corrie full of paths. At least the ridge was more like hill walking with no more skiing paraphernalia and a good view into Coire t-Sneachda and the surrounding climbing crags. We disturbed a couple of Ptarmigan that scurried out of reach and even if I had my camera ready they are so well camouflaged in the snow and rocks that you wouldn't be able to see them on a photograph.
The path up the steep Fiacaill a'Choire Chais ridge is probably very obvious without a snow covering and we came across it about half way. It was debatable that the hardened snow on the path was any easier to climb than stepping over and around the boulders in the looser snow. At the top of the ridge is a large cairn from where the view became very large too, the high and not-so-high clouds making different shapes and light in the distance. By now the snow was properly ankle deep with some drifting making it strenuous walking across the high plateau of Cairn Gorm on the way to Coire Raibeirt.
The Coire Raibeirt route to Loch Avon has a lot of contour lines in a small piece of the map, the walk by the frozen burn is very steep. Clinging onto the snow covered heather, stepping into non-existent foot holes and sliding over ice covered rocks, it was slow going. Half way down it was well past the time I should have put on my crampons, after I did it became so much easier to get down the side of the loch. I removed the crampons a bit too soon, I had to put them on again to get across the burn, the stepping stones were well covered in wet ice.
We walked on a vague muddy and icy path around the edge of the loch before crossing a six foot wide stream and climbing up to a small lochan. Loch Avon is an especially beautiful place, a walker's place; the snow covered hills either side were reflected in the dark water. There are crags on three sides of the loch and all around it the hills are over 1000 metres high, it is an impressive wild place. We had been walking for over three hours and only now did we start to climb the object of the exercise, Beinn Mheadhoin.
There is a steep climb over a combination of muddy and icy ground below the impressive crags of Carn Etchachan. On reaching another high plateau of partly frozen wet ground close to Loch Etchachan we started the long climb to Beinn Mheadhoin. On the ascent we could see Ben Macdui, or rather the clouds that were obscuring it, craggy Carn Etchachan was well seen and the distant view across Loch Avon to Stac an Phairaidh was especially interesting. We could also see the summit tor of Beinn Mheadhoin, best not to look at it though it only seems the walk seem longer.
The odd shapes of the granite tors at the summit were very reminiscent of the alluvial rocks on Kinder Scout but rather larger and with a good covering of frost. On a dry day I would have enjoyed the scramble up the tor but I had no intention of attempting to climb over the icy rock. Jim slid half way down the tor on his fifth point of contact as his first attempt failed and you have to admire his determination as he put on crampons and succeeded in reaching the top at the second attempt. Whilst watching the other boys play and then having lunch my hands suddenly became cold, I was glad to start the descent back towards Loch Avon.
The descent was fairly easy and quite quick in the fading daylight, my frozen hands coming back to life with painful aching. Short of daylight and with it getting colder we made an unnecessary diversion to the Shelter Stone marked on the map. It is an impressively large boulder with an unlikely cairn on the top of it and a big gap below that could be used as a shelter for several people. We walked back around the head of Loch Avon, too dark now for taking photographs and we took a higher, drier path to a place before reaching Coire Raibeirt.
In order to avoid climbing the frozen burn in the dark we decided to climb a steep snow-covered heather slope. Even in the dark it was obvious that I became red-faced with the strenuous effort of climbing the steep shoulder through ankle deep snow. As the gradient eased I was hoping for some relief but the lesser slope was negated by the deeper snow, the cold mist and the darkness. Even with the confidence of the navigators I wasn't unhappy to see the GPS being deployed to confirm our slightly incorrect position.
The combination of GPS, compass and luck brought us to a point on Fiacaill a'Choire Chais where we could see the lights of Aviemore, all we had to do was descend the soft re-freezing snowy ridge. Ten and a half hours is a reasonable walk at this time of the year.
Sunday morning arrived and the previous day's hard walk had blunted some ambitions and the plan was to return to Cairn Gorm to reach the summit this time. From the Coire Cas car park again we set off along the track towards the Ptarmigan Restaurant and this time we only strayed off the main track for a short cut along the route of a Ski Tow, staying on the track would have been easier. It was a calm, benign winter's day and at the bend in the track we decided to wait until we reached the Ptarmigan before stopping for a break with a view.
It took about fifteen minutes to reach the Ptarmigan from there but by the time we got there the mist had come in and benign had become Arctic, no view and wrap up warm. Just above the restaurant is a ski tow mechanism and then the start of the path to the summit of Cairn Gorm. Not only is it the biggest and widest mountain path I have seen there is also a rope cordon either side of it to make sure you don't miss the path. The horizontal frosty icicles are a couple of inches long on the posts supporting the rope cordon, six inches long on the summit cairn and a good deal longer on the structure of the weather station.
The big path is one of those designed to prevent erosion, it is a nice path but with a bit of icy snow on it is just about viable on the way up but noone uses it on the way down. Another path is being worn as walkers descend by the side of the path, creating more erosion and defeating the object of the path. The paths should be designed for walkers so that erosion is prevented.
You don't get this kind of entertainment any other way.
Andy Wallace 19th & 20th November 2005