
Bike 6km + 130m, 19km + 1160m, bike 6km + 100m. Southern Cairngorms.
Linn of Dee car park (07.30), cycled the track into Derry Lodge (08.30), before heading up the path to Creag Bad an t-Seabhaig and into the bitter easterly wind. It was a straight forward walk up to Carn Crom and onto the deleted south top (10.25) before getting to the main objective of Derry Cairngorm (10.45). I then had the fun of a gentle white out and hitting the spotlight 1053m at GR009996 on my way to the outlet of Loch Etchachan (11.45). From there more bearings to me out to Stacan Dubha (12.15), again tidy up a stray top from ML days. It was then back tracking and down to Hutchinson Memorial Hut, a welcome break from the wind and some lunch (12.50). I then had the long walk down the Glen Derry back to the bike and the van (16.20).
A cold day -2ºC in the car park. A good long day with varied snow conditions, hard crust with fresh slab forming. I had wanted to get out to Beinn a` Chaorainn Bheag but decided, partly on time, but mainly on the high probability of crossing badly avalanche prone slopes, not to go for it. Stopped in the Linn of Dee car park again.
Area :
The Cairngorms
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.