CAIRNGORMS 4000 WEEKEND

The team and Loch A'an

Our camp in the Lairig Ghru

Cairn Gorm

Temperature Inversion on Cairn Gorm

Nice light

A green Hell's Lum Chimney

Nice views

A big shower cloud about to creep in

Carn Toul peeping out

Lairig Ghru

A sea of clouds

Bod an Deamhain

Breariach & Lairig Ghru

Carn Toul and descent off Ben Macdui

Heavy showers

Ben Macdui

Shower clouds forming

Burns up

Lunch time

Loch A'an

The wild and beautiful Gleann Guisachan from Bod an Deamhain

A great challenge in The Cairngorms is to climb all the 4000 ft. peaks in the area. There are only 9 4000ft mountains in the UK and 5 of these are all in The Cairngorms. They can all be summited over two days on a backpacking trip. On Saturday and Sunday I was guiding a small group of just three folk for Kingdom Guides. The weather has been very erratic recently with heavy showers, high temperatures and a day of prolonged heavy rain on the Friday. The weather forecasters have been having a hard time predicting all this. The weekend weather forecast was looking quite poor just a few days prior. So it was with some relief that on the Saturday we got a really nice day. Pamela, Lee, John and I set off from the Coire Cas carpark in a thick layer of cloud (and midges)! We were soon away from the wee beasties as we headed up Windy Ridge to the first of our big peaks, Cairn Gorm. It's the easiest and shortest of the bunch and we were on the summit within an hour or so. Fantastic morning up here as we broke through the cloud layer above 1000m and into blue skies with a sea of cloud below us. What a pleasant surprise!
After a snack or two it was off across the plateau towards Ben Macdui, the second highest peak in the British Isles. As it was beautiful weather conditions I lead my group over to the finest viewpoint in the whole of the area, the view looking down into Loch A'an. Lunch here in beautiful sunshine and grand mountain and loch vistas. As we made our way back across the plateau the clouds were forming. The low risk of thunderstorms was always on my mind for this day. So after the obligatory summit photos we made a quick descent off the plateau and into the Lairig Ghru. A big, heavy shower crept in from the north but only lasted 10 minutes. We were back into sunshine for the late afternoon walk into the spectacular pass that splits the Central and Western Cairngorms plateau.
I don't usually do wild camping in mid summer and was dreading the thought of the midge making camp unbearable. To our surprise the winds had picked up significantly and a good stiff breeze blew right through the Lairig Ghru. absolute bliss! Cooking and eating in the fresh August air!
Saturday night into Sunday morning and the winds were even stronger. no midges for breakfast, but a wet soggy and windy day in store for part two of our mini expedition. The three remaining 4000ft peaks of Cairn Toul, Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Braeriach lie along the western plateau and give a fantastic high level traverse with not much ascent and descent in between all the summits. A good path leaves the Lairig Ghru at Corrour Bothy all the way up onto the high ground. It's not too much effort to tag along the other remaining Munro of Bod an Deamhain (I refuse to call it The Devils Point). Here we got the best and only view off all of the days summits! From Cairn Toul's lower slopes we were in thick cloud, steady light rain and strong winds of 40mph+ for the rest of the day. We saw not a single person all the way back to the carpark at the Sugar Bowl. At times it felt distinctly Autumnal. My group were well kitted out with plenty of gloves, woolly hats and fleeces. The key to an enjoyable backpacking trip through the Scottish hills is keeping the weight on your back down to a minimum. This doesn't mean sacrificing essential equipment of clothing mind. Today's tents, sleeping bags and cookware weighing so little and packing down small means you can get all your gear and food into a 40 litre rucksack with ease. I try and encourage folk to get the weight down to around 10kg.
We arrived back to civilisation by early evening. Very wet but satisfying trip in one of the finest backpacking adventures. Well done to my team, great effort.