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.
Plan for "journey" over to Ben MacDui using a snow hole for accommodation. Slower member of the group dictated that we camped at Ciste Mheared. We built a decent shelter in under 3 hours as the snow was brilliant" to work with (coming out in good blocks and very little ice). Unfortunately we received an update on the next days forecast and it was much worse than the previous (severe gales and heavy snow) along with the updated avalanche forecast (high on aspects NW to SE!). We took a view in the morning after digging ourselves out of snow hole and decided to return to the valley (really disappointing). However after meeting up with other folk who had attempted to go up that day and failed and after talking to the Ranger it was clearly the right decision. Amazing though, in this unbelievable weather folk were still skiing! The Scottish skier really is a very hardy beast!
