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Driesh and Mayar

Last night I joined up with a few folk from GWC who were on their annual Projects Staff Training weekend. This year the base was the Glen Clova hotel and bunkhouse. Richard G and I had been asked to lead a walk on the Saturday so we drove up late last night in Richard's car.

From reading the conditions blogs on the web, I knew that there had been a lot of snow recently and there was even more still on the ground. With this in mind, we didn't fancy doing anything too serious so a circular route taking in Driesh and Mayar seemed like the easiest and most sensible option. In the morning, it meant that we only had a short drive up the road to the car park at Acharn.

There was a lot of snow on the ground, as we made our way through the Glendoll Forest and into Corrie Fee. It was a fine day with sun and a clear blue sky - a classic high-pressure day. Many of the group hadn't walked in snow before so Richard and I talked about how to use an ice axe for walking. We had crampons but we didn't need them because there wasn't any ice and the snw was deep and soft.

It was a bit of a slog up the gully at the end of Corrie Fee but once at the top the ascent was almost done for the day. At the top of Mayar we had a fantastic view over the Cairngorms and we were able to see just how much snow there had been; the hills were covered and well-rounded. We could also see quite a few large cornices at the top of the crags surrounding Glen Clova.

After bagging Mayar we tramped over to the summit of Driesh for more stunning views of the snowy surrounding hills. Our descent took us along the ridge over the Hill of Strone before heading down to the bealach between Cairn Inks and Cairn of Barns. From here we descended Northwest back down to the Hotel for hot showers. A great day for everyone.