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Braeriach
Map Graham cleared off quite early and after he'd gone I got up and went into Aviemore in search of something to eat. I found it at the Mountain Café which provided me with a very nice veggy breakfast for £6 - a bit steep but they were using Fairdeal ingredients so you couldn't begrudge it. After that I drove up to the same starting point as a month ago, the car park on the U-bend in the road just past Glenmore. Cloudy overhead but the tops looked like they might be clear. I set off at 9.05 and followed the same route as before: through some light woodland, dropping down into a glen, over a wooden bridge, and up the opposite, heather-clad hillside.
There was a good path forging its way up there; fairly level following the lip of the glen for a while, then dipping down and crossing a stream before rising easily up towards the Chalamain Gap. The latter is a narrow, steep-sided ravine filled with the jumble of fallen rocks over which you have to clamber with care. At the other end of the ravine you debouch onto more open land with Lurchers Crag to the left. Cross over the flat area and descend the valley side into the famous Lairig Ghru - the great north-south slash which runs through the Cairngorms and offers (rough) passage from Aviemore to Braemar.
I descended into the pass and made my way South for a hundred yards or so, passing by the memorial stone to Angus Sinclair who died nearby on 21st December 1954. The path then continued up the green, western hillside, curving round to the south over the gently-rounded shoulder of Sron na Lairige and thence to the northern rim of the corrie, Coire Bhrochain. Unfortunately on gaining the rim I entered light cloud and once again the grand views eluded me.
Still, the bulk of the climb was done now and all that remained was to walk around the lip of the corrie until I reached the (correct) summit cairn. This time I checked very, very carefully with the GPS and, leaving my sac at the cairn, I walked a few hundred yards further just to make absolutely sure I had the right spot. Finally convinced I returned to the cairn and found a bloke waiting there. He was a fellow munro-bagger in his mid 40s, hailing from Poulton-le-Fylde near Preston. Braeriach was his 64th munro and my 233rd. He told me he was contemplating carrying on to Cairn Toul. I told him that would be a fair trek but he wanted to give it a bash and decided to hang on for a bit to see if the cloud cleared.
As I was leaving a couple of blokes turned up from the direction of Cairn Toul, then another band of 3 and a further 3 from the Aviemore direction. I broke out of the cloud a few hundred feet below the summit and after 10 minutes of descent met a couple labouring up towards me. This bloke too was keen to tack Cairn Toul onto the trip but the woman seemed glad to hear my cautionary words about it being a long haul. Funnily enough she looked a lot fitter and fresher than the man. On the way back I took in the two mini-tops of Sron na Lairige as it wasn't much extra effort, then started the long walk back to the car. At the point where I re-crossed the Lairig Ghru, pretty much near its apex, a stream was gushing out of the ground and tumbling down the mountainside to the north. Not just a trickle, this came out of the ground as a fully-fledged stream and it was clear and cold and the most delicious drink of water I have ever tasted.
Back at the car 4.00. I drove to Spean Bridge and the only accommodation I could find was Braelea where the lady was charging £35 including the £10 single supplement. I walked down the road and got a veggie burger and chips at the Little Chef, followed by apple pie & custard and a cup of coffee (£10.47). Then a Guinness at the Commando Bar. | ||||||
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