BIKING THROUGH THE GAICK PASS

Loch an  t-Seilich

Gaick Lodge & Sron Bhuirich

Wonderful single track alongside Loch an Duin

Lots of Lapwing's around

Leaving civilisation

Some sun

Lots of these too, racing along with the bike and still thinking it's winter!

The Gaick Pass is one of those wonderful and remote routes in The Cairngorm area, known as 'The Mounth Roads'. I had a great bike ride from Aviemore through to Dalwhinie by way of the Gaick ( Gaig) Pass. After a warm up on the may excellent trails between Feshie Bridge and the start of Glen Trommie the scenery becomes more and more impressive with the hills becoming much steeper either side of this glen., indeed there are always avalanches through here during the winter months, despite the relatively low altitudes of the hills. No mobile phone signals here, you're on your own in more ways than one! Plenty of wildlife but not a soul seen all day. The route comes out onto the A9 at Dalnacardoch so it was another hour or so up to Dalwhinie to catch the train back to Aviemore, an excellent 85km route

EASTER BIKING

Another glorious day in The Cairngorms with hot sun, blue skies and a lovely cooling breeze. Great conditions for biking above Badaguish where there are some lovely single track routes in the pines, nice to see someone as been in there to trim back the bigger branches that were obscuring the trail. A fabulous Easter period with wall to wall sunshine every day.

BEN MACDUI & CARN A' MHAIM ON A PERFECT DAY

Approaching Ben Macdui

Cairn Toul standing proud

Cairn Toul & Sgurr an Lochain Uaine

Coire Brochain, Braeriach

Bod an Deamhain (The Devils Point from Carn a' Mhaim)

The fine ridge on Carn a Mhaim with fine views of Braeriach & Macdui

Cairn Toul

Cairn Toul, Sgurr an Lochan Uaine  & Braeriach from Ben Macdui

The Highlands have enjoyed crystal blue skies from dawn to dusk all through this Easter weekend. Karen and I had a wonderful day on Ben Macdui & Carn a' Mhaim. Carn a' Mhaim is usually ascended from the Lin of Dee side of The Cairngorms but we don't do easy and heading to the summit from the north side of the Cairngorms makes for a much longer day. Whichever way you try to tackle this lovely hill it will be a long day. With the superb conditions and long daylight hours then why not? Our chosen route went over Ben Macdui first before the massive 500m descent to get onto the wonderful north ridge of Carn a' Mhaim. This mountain is quite unique for The Cairngorm area being a long narrow ridge. All the way along there are fine views of the Cairn Toul-Braeriach mountains. It was base layer & sunnies all day today with just a gentle breeze to stop us from getting too warm. We headed back along The Lairig Ghtru arriving at Coylumbridge just before dark and rounded off the epic 12 hour day by walking back to the house, perfect. Same weather for Easter Monday :)

BRAERIACH TO CAIRN TOUL TRAVERSE IN ALPINE WEATHER

A stunning day in The Highlands and especially in The Cairngorms with wall to wall blue skies and sun from dawn to dusk. It had been below freezing at all levels overnight so any snow was completely frozen this morning. There are still large areas of snow especially on north and east facing slopes and on high plateaux. I have usually traversed the Braeriach to Cairn Toul plateau several times in the winter but this winter's constant gales meant I never had the chance. Today the UK's finest, highest walk was shear delight. Superb visibility in all directions and Ben Nevis very clear and with only a slight breeze I was down to just a base layer most of the day. By mid day all the snow cover was quite soft but a pair of crampons was useful earlier in the day, something to be aware of this time of year. My rucksack is till looking like a winter pack! Looks like the Highlands is going to fair best with fab weather this Easter holiday period.

INGLEBOROUGH IN GLORIOUS SUN

Last day for me working with Dof E groups in Yorkshire Dales. It was a glorious summer like day with wall to wall blue skies and a light breeze. The boys chose a route traversing over the summit of Ingleborough and down to Ingleton. This week I have been working for addventure.co.uk. Home tomorrow.

SUNSHINE & MORE NAVIGATION IN THE DALES

After a chilly and wet day last Saturday it was back to lovely sunshine for the second group of Dof E in the Yorkshire Dales today. More navigation training and some 1st aid/emergency procedures. A lovely day to be strolling around the hills.

CLIMB EVERY STILE & NVIGATION

Day two of the lads DofE expedition. Weather a tad chilly with a strong wind and showers. The guys planned a lower level walk which seemed to go over every stile and wall in the Yorkshire Dales. We covered lots of navigation and some emergency situations.

YORKSHIRE DALES DofE

BACK TO WINTER ON BRAERIACH

Some excellent breaks in the cloud

One of the gems of Braeriach, Loch Coire an Lochan

Excellent snow cover on the summit area and plateau

Atmospheric cloud and sun on the summit

Many fragile cornices still

Debbie brushing up on map and compass work to get off the plateau

Ben Macdui & Lairig Ghru

Return client Debbie was out with me for a day on the wonderful Braeriach. There was a change in the weather with an unusual NW airflow-unusual because we hardly had any NW's all winter! A dusting of fresh snow overnight plus some light and brief snow showers today. There were also some lovely glimpses of sun and blue skies and with the strong winds it felt a tad wintry again. It's a nice circuit to start at Whitewell and up into the Lairig Ghru and onto the long  north ridge to the summit. There are still some big areas of hard snow here so we took advantage of these over the usual bouldery summer terrain. Debbie did some micro navigation on the plateau area and we descended down to the lovely Loch Coire an Lochan where we had almost continuous snow all the way down to 600m before heading out in glorious early evening sunshine through Glen Einaich.  The plateau still has an excellent cover of snow. Why most guide books give the route up the UK's third highest peak starting at the Sugar Bowl car park, heading into the awkward boulders in the Chalamain Gap then descending into the Lairig Ghru on a mostly boggy path then returning the same route, ie ascending again into the boulders, as always baffled me (answers on a postcard please).

WILD CAMPING IN THE MONADHLIATH

New tent in action. We found a nice dry spot out of the bog

The eastern crags below the summit of Carn Dearg

Summit views

The route down the eastern corrie in soft snow

The rickety bridge back home

Karen and I had our first wild camping foray this year and headed into the Monadhliath mountains to test out our new Hilleeberg tent. The weather this weekend was more favourable up in the Cairngorm area and further east but we stayed local and walked in from Newtonmore. We set up camp around 600m and after lunch trekked up the boggy path and onto the Munro summit of Carn Dearg, the more attractive of the trio of Munros that make a popular circuit. Still quite a fair bit of snow in the eastern corrie below the summit but all soft in the very mild temperatures. It was clagged in from 800m onwards so we just settled for the one Munro. The Hilleberg tent  was brilliant and sports an enormous porch area which is brilliant, especially for those wet days that we may get in the future.

SPRING?

The annual end of winter video from me. Thanks to all my clients for battling in the gales this year, well done! Of course winter isn't over until May!

IN THE CAIRNGORMS CLOUD BUBBLE

The Shelterstone Crag

Hell's Lum

A lot of avalanche debris from out of Hells Lum

Ptarmigan changing into spring colours day by day

Regular client Terry was due to be out again with me today but unfortunately his wife had broken her wrist yesterday whilst they were walking their dogs. Poor Terry, Aviemore isn't a lucky place for him. We were blasted by 80mph winds on his first day out with me before Christmas and only reached 500m before turning (crawling) back, his second attempt had to be postponed because of food poisoning, at least we had a great day out a couple of weeks ago. So I found myself with a spare day today and headed over into the Loch Avon basin. There was thick cloud and poor visibility on the plateau and even at 800m descending down to the Feithe Bhuidhe there was still cloud. There is good snow cover here but also big holes in the snow pack and some dodgy looking snow bridges. There as been some recent avalanche debris all the way out of Hells Lum down to the Feithe Buidhe. I just got back to the Cairngorm car park late afternoon and the cloud had lifted and it was lovely sunshine.