199, 200. Carn an Righ (102), Glas Tulaichean (79). 05/01/2019
Assessing the early January conditions, our weekend was due to be fairly mild and without much snow, so we left our winter boots and crampons behind in order to cover more ground. This proved to be wise, since there was virtually no snow at all. The conditions were also better in the east, so we planned for a long day on the Sunday and therefore this walk became a bit of a warm-up to get a feel for conditions.
We got the train up from Cambridge after work and bus to the airport, then hired a car and stayed the night in one of the cheap hotels there. That allowed us to be on the road around 7am and walking before 9, thereby maximising the daylight. In fact we needn't have worried, since we were done well before dusk, but we decided to reverse the route suggested by Cicerone so that we could walk out along a track in case we were donning headtorches by this point.
Chris (my walking partner) had not walked east of the A9 and was appreciative of the long walk-ins found in the Cairngorms. There was a little ice on the path as it began to steepen beside a waterfall, but generally it was very easy going. As we reached the plateau, we skirted a loch which had the thinnest of films of ice reaching the whole way across.
At this point the guide book ominously mentions a 'boggy morass' and given they don't usually bother mentioning such things unless they would suck your boots off, you can imagine how pleased we were to discover it was all frozen solid. This also made for rapid progress and we soon crossed the bog and were climbing into the mist further along the plateau.
We didn't see much from the top of Carn an Righ and it was a bit chilly in the mist, so we didn't stay long. On the way across to Glas Tulaichean we cut the corner, taking advantage of the frozen terrain and were soon climbing the slopes to the summit ridge. As we walked along this wide ridge, there were signs of the mist thinning and sure enough, just as we reached the summit, our heads poked out of it and we were graced with a near cloud inversion. In fact, the sky was quite clear not far from us to the east, but in every other direction we were only able to see the highest summits peeking out above the cloud.
The walk out was very comfortable, almost entirely along a track - in fact we passed mountain bikers only a few minutes down from the summit. We were back at the car after 6h20, probably faster than in summer!
We got the train up from Cambridge after work and bus to the airport, then hired a car and stayed the night in one of the cheap hotels there. That allowed us to be on the road around 7am and walking before 9, thereby maximising the daylight. In fact we needn't have worried, since we were done well before dusk, but we decided to reverse the route suggested by Cicerone so that we could walk out along a track in case we were donning headtorches by this point.
Chris (my walking partner) had not walked east of the A9 and was appreciative of the long walk-ins found in the Cairngorms. There was a little ice on the path as it began to steepen beside a waterfall, but generally it was very easy going. As we reached the plateau, we skirted a loch which had the thinnest of films of ice reaching the whole way across.
At this point the guide book ominously mentions a 'boggy morass' and given they don't usually bother mentioning such things unless they would suck your boots off, you can imagine how pleased we were to discover it was all frozen solid. This also made for rapid progress and we soon crossed the bog and were climbing into the mist further along the plateau.
We didn't see much from the top of Carn an Righ and it was a bit chilly in the mist, so we didn't stay long. On the way across to Glas Tulaichean we cut the corner, taking advantage of the frozen terrain and were soon climbing the slopes to the summit ridge. As we walked along this wide ridge, there were signs of the mist thinning and sure enough, just as we reached the summit, our heads poked out of it and we were graced with a near cloud inversion. In fact, the sky was quite clear not far from us to the east, but in every other direction we were only able to see the highest summits peeking out above the cloud.
The walk out was very comfortable, almost entirely along a track - in fact we passed mountain bikers only a few minutes down from the summit. We were back at the car after 6h20, probably faster than in summer!
A frozen misty loch on the ascent.
The brightening summit of Glas Tulaichean
Beinn a'Ghlo peeking through a sea of cloud
posted by graham at 1:41 PM
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