[Trip Index] [Munro Index] [Home] 19th May 2006   Carn a Mhaim Ben McDui (done before) Derry Cairngorm Map A lot easier than expected. I parked at the same place I had done for Cairn Toul on Sunday and set off on the bike at 7.50. As before I cycled to the end of the trees in Glen Luibeg and left the bike in the heather behind a tree (8.10). Then a brisk walk along the well-laid path, same as before only this time I turned right at a small cairn and followed a path up the steepish side of Carn a Mhaim through heather and grass. At the top of this bit the gradient eases and it's then a simple walk up to the top (10.10). View from the slopes of Carn a Mhaim At the summit After a brief rest I continued along Carn a Mhaim's northern ridge, a fine high-level walk above the Lairig Ghru on the left, with good views of the Devil's Point and Cairn Toul. At this point there was cloud obscuring the top of Ben McDui and I told myself that if it cleared I'd go to the top and get the pictures and views that I hadn't been able to get the last time, but that if it stayed shrouded in cloud I'd bypass it and just go for Derry Cairngorm. On the northern ridge The northern ridge I was on narrowed as I went along, becoming stony with steep drops on both sides but all very safe. Eventually it reached the bealach and from there I had a fairly easy climb up grass/heather at first, then a boulder slope made up of pink, rounded granite boulders which were all well settled with age and didn't move much underfoot. The firmness made them very good for ascending and I soon reached a col near the top where there was still a large sheet of snow and ice. The cloud on Ben McDui had cleared though so I turned left and made my way up a gently-rising bouldery slope, past a ruined building, to the summit plateau of the second highest mountain in the country (12.20). A place scattered with windbreaks, a direction column set up in 1925 by the Cairngorm Club of Aberdeen, and a large cairn topped with a trig point. Fine views today, unlike the last time I was here, back in 1990. The direction column The Ben McDui summit plateau Me at the top I returned to the col and carried on East as far as the cliffs where I turned left and followed the path down, round the end to a broad, bouldery bealach and then south to Derry Cairngorm. This was a straightforward climb up another boulder slope to a summit (2.00) where there are two cairns. Not sure which was the true top but I copped them both then sat a while enjoying the views. Derry Cairngorm seen from the eastern crags of Ben McDui The two cairns   North cairn of Derry Cairngorm with Ben McDui to the right and Cairn Toul to the left South cairn of Derry Cairngorm     After that I had an easy amble down the south ridge of Derry Cairngorm - a broad, heathery plateau descending to a final hillock, Carn Crom, which looked easy so I went up it just for the sake of completeness. It has an elegant cairn at the top. I then descended west down the hillside over heather, with no path evident until I eventually joined the one alongside the Luibeg Burn. This path winds round the base of the massif and joins the Glen Luibeg path on which I had started. I retrieved the bike at 4.30 and after a fast and bumpy ride was back at the car twenty minutes later. The weather on this trip was overcast with bright spells and a couple of showers. It started out very mild and I'd just needed shirt and t-shirt (and sunhat) as far as the first summit. Then it had cooled and I'd had to don my fleece, hat and gloves. Then it warmed up again and they'd come off but the Berghaus had to go back on briefly. Finally I ended up back in shirt and t-shirt for the last stretch back.