The Cairngorms are ‘a little piece of the arctic in Scotland’ according to the SMC Munros Guide and the area contains many of the tallest peaks in the East Highlands. Ben Macdui (1309m), Cairn Gorm (1244m) and Braeriach (1296) are probably three of the better known and the whole area is full of steep corries and high plateaux. Access to the mountains is typically from Aviemore or Braemar.
Myself and Barry Guthrie set off from home at 4am and drove up to the Ski Station where we set off at 8am up the Sron an Aonaich route to Ptarmigan Staion and then up onto the summit of Cairngorm. By the time we got onto the summit the winds were reaching 60 mile an hour and the wind chill was around -10. we then headed off the west side of the summit down towards spot height 1141 and started to head down Coire Raibert, but then Barry expressed his interest in heading back down due to the bad weather , so we headed to the spot height and there we found a dog lead which could have been from some missing walkers, who we found out later had been nissing overnight with their dog (They were found a couple of hours later safe and well). we headed back down the Fiacaill Chotie cas to the ski station and back to the car.
