BIKING & SCRAMBLING BRAERIACH

Some clean, solid rock for a nice scramble. Coire Dhondall still holding snow. Braeriach summit far top left

Would make a nice winter route

Sgor Gaoithe & Loch Einich in the sun

Snow melting fast on the plateaux

Fine views into Coire Odhar from the buttress/ridge

It started off dull and overcast but the weather forecast was spot on as by the middle of the day there were a few holes in the cloud and some nice spells of bright sunshine in The Cairngorms. Timed it right as I biked along Glen Einich and the sun just started breaking out as I got to the loch. I wandered up the lovely stalkers path from Loch Einich into Coire Dhondall which eventually comes onto the plateau of Braeriach. There are still some long stretches of snow lingering down the burn lines from the plateau into Loch Einich which cross the path but these are easily negotiated. The final steepening onto the plateau still has a huge amount of banked up snow, where the path comes close to the waterfall, and there is a huge crevasse so not long before this eventually collapses. I  wandered over to the buttress which bounds the corrie to the SW. It's quite bouldery and broken but good fun and not too loose, the scrambling was very short lived but a really nice way onto the plateau and great views down to Loch Einich. Not much evidence of any traffic here, it would be good fun under winter conditions. Looks like temperatures are dropping again over the next couple of days. Where's the hot sun?