
Sunshine and good visibility for first quarter of the day but low clouds soon came in to cause whiteout conditions at times. Intermittent periods of good visibility but long periods of very limited visibility. From Aberader car park followed west track across river and onto shoulder of Sron a Choire. Decided to contour round onto Creag Mhor before summitting at around 1060m. Navigated west to Puist Coire Ardair and then navigated in full whiteout across to Meggy east top and then onto Meggy summit. From Meggy summit navigated straight across to Meall Coire Choille-rais and then onto An Cearcallach. Before summitting An Cearcallach practiced an improvised emergency snow shelter on a steep drift located in Moy Corrie. Descended An Cearcallach by its south side picking a safe route through. Headed back to A86 and followed this back to car.
Patches of wind slab found on southern aspects and various areas of varying stability noticed. Firm crust layer beneath windslab and found on most southern aspects. Crampons were required for all ground above 750m. 7 hours.
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.