After spending a few days in the west the plan was to head to the Cairngorms, but on the way bag a munro both myself or my friend hadn't done before.
We set off from Fort William early to beat the snow which was to be pretty full on from 8am onwards.
We arrived at Garva bridge just as the snow was getting heavy and headed up towards the munro using the burn (Feith Talagain) as a very handy handrail. The avalanche foreast was considerable on North through to SE slopes but our route used westerly mainly and SW .
As we gained height the snow got heavier and deeper on the ground, which proved great for my snowshoes which I had packed.
Progress was slow but we made the summit in pretty white out conditions and winds that were picking up.
What should have taken around 3 hour s took 5.5 hours.
Compass was used in anger and no photographs were taken during the day.
The drive back down the Glen and to Newtonmore was by far the hardest part of the day!
Area :
Monadhliath Mountains (Carn Dearg)
Monadhliath Mountains means "grey mountains". Running in a northeast to southwest direction, the mountains lie on the western side of Strathspey, to the west of the Cairngorms and to the south east of Loch Ness. The mountains are within the Highland council area, and the south and east fringes are within the Cairngorms National Park. The high point of the range is Càrn Dearg, at 945 m/3100ft, located 24 km south of Inverness.
