It was an excellent forecast for the Cairngorms, I had planned to do Cairn Toul for some time but decided to take advantage of the long days and good weather to push on to Braeriach. Early start, in the car at 5am local time and left Linn of Dee on my bike at 0645.
I left my bike about half way between Derry Lodge and Luibeg bridge, only 6.5km in but really saves time and very welcome on the way out!
Early morning at Luibeg Bridge
Route ahead left to right - Devil’s Point, Cairn Toul & Braeriach
Corrour Bothy
Nobody in by the time I arrived at 0845
Easy walking on the good path above Corrour
Ben Macdui from Devil’s Point
south from Devil’s Point
Next stop Cairn Toul
Summit of Cairn Toul
GM/ES-013 Carn a’Mhaim and the long ridge running north towards Ben Macdui
Sgor an Lochain Uaine (Angels Peak) with the Lochan below
and waterfall from Wells of Dee
Looking back to Cairn Toul
Lochain Uaine
Braeriach
Route round to Braeriach from Sgor an Lochain Uaine summit
Reindeer on the plateau near Wells of Dee
Wells of Dee, refill the water bottles!
Carn a’Mhaim, Cairn Toul & Sgor an Lochain Uaine
Busy on Braeriach
Route home down the ridge into the Lairig Ghru
Just got to get down to that path then the long walk out!
back along to Braeriach
route south along Glen Dee
North up Lairig Ghru
back to Devil’s Point and Corrour
Long walk back out, very glad to be on to my bike and the gentle downhill back to Linn of Dee car park. Took exactly 12 hours including the two activations, 43km total with 13km of that on bike.
Conditions seemed flat, stuck with 30m & 17m CW to avoid the IARU contest. Nice to manage 8 qso’s on 2m FM from Cairn Toul with 2m handheld and 1/2 wave whip.
Great day out in amazing weather,
73 Gavin
GM0GAV