#carn aosda

[aber-flyingtiger]

On top of the Cairnwell and Carn Aosda, respectively.

[on-misty-mountains]

Glenshee

Before the snow sets in in the Scottish Highlands and the skiing season begins we decided to go for a walk up Carn Aosda (915m / 3002ft) and The Cairnwell (933m / 3061ft). Those two mountains are classified as ‘Munros’, which are any mountains in Scotland of at least 3000 ft in height. Since the Cairngorms, the Eastern part of the Scottish Highlands are more of a plateau, the ascent is much shorter compared to mountains in the Western Highlands, many of which start closer to sea level. But that is what makes for the difference in the landscape. The Western Highlands look tall and pointy, while the Cairngorms look round and flat and there are many ‘corries’, hollows which were shaped by glaciers thousand of years ago. These mountains are very old and were shaped and ground down by glaciers in the ice age. It’s almost as if the mountains are missing their peaks. It does make for much easier walking though. To get to these mountains however, we first had to drive up north through the mountains on a long, twisty road with some very scenic views:

We parked at the Glenshee Ski Centre and went up to Carn Aosda first. I wasn’t prepared for just how cold and windy it would be, although there was no sight of snow just yet. Despite it’s flat appearance, the way was short, sharp and steep. Luckily, I was taking frequent photo breaks:

Here is a closed look at one of the ‘corries’:

After about 45 minutes we were finally at the (rather flat) top.

The view was great, however. On the other side you could see The Cairnwell, the mountain we would go up next.

You get a good idea here just how flat and round the Cairngorms are:

You can see the road we drove up on continue further up North. It’s known as an ‘Old Military Road’, but might be an ancient route, which people would have taken to get to the North of Scotland by foot or horse. This road is called the A93 and eventually leads to Aberdeen. On the Western side of the Cairgorms is the A9, another ancient road, which leads all the way to Inverness.

On the way back down we spotted a few mountain hares. They were easy to spot because they had already changed into their winter coat when there was yet to be snow.

Due to the strong wind, the sky was changing rapidly and new clouds were being blown in all the time, but for the time being the sun was out and we had a brief period of rest while we were walking on the plateau between the two peaks.

Loch Vrotachan:

Looking back towards Carn Aosda on the left:

It’s amazing just how barren this landscape is and yet there is plenty of wildlife, which includes mountain hares, grouse and also reindeer, which we didn’t spot unfortunately.

Finally, we were getting closer to the Cairnwell.

During the snow these hills are used for skiing, but the ski lift chairs totally double as a cosy bench to sit on to rest your feet. The view is amazing either way.

On top of the Cairnwell we were met with a great view and the sun breaking through the clouds, sending its rays down.

While taking those pictures it was drizzling slightly, but because of the wind it felt like many tiny needles or icicles smashing into my face, so it was difficult to stay on this side of the mountain for long. I did try a few more times, just to observe a change in scenery within 10 minutes. The same valley quickly clouded over and it started to rain.

Just as soon as the shower came, it went away again and for most of the journey down we had sunshine. At about 3.30pm the sun started to set and threw a warm shade all across the hills.

A video with footage is up on my Youtube channel.

[scotianostra]

Glenshee snow scene

[chrismcmorris]

The Cairnwell Munros

My folks are over for a long weekend and Emily and I are staying with them for two nights in the Dalmunzie Castle. As usual, Dad was keen to bag a hill of description but we didn't want it to be the main focus of the weekend either, as we were staying in a rather nice hotel for the weekend after all!

Saturday was looking like a decent day, but it wasn't looking too good while we were having a late breakfast. However, as we headed towards Braemar, the clouds lifted completely and were replaced by a blazing sun and bright blue sky. As the weather was favourable and we didn't have much time, I set our sights on the easy round of The Cairnwell Munros from the Glenshee Ski Centre.

We parked up at the Ski Centre and were soon making our way up the stoney path to the summit of Carn Aosda. It was very easy going and straightforward. Not the most interesting of summits but on such a nice day we had a great view of the hills all around us. Herbie even recognised the An Socach ridge from earlier in this year - I was most impressed.

We pressed on quickly, as it was extremely windy on the top. The wind continued to hammer us as we made our way down to the bealach above Creag a' Choire Dhirich and past Loch Vrotachan. Here, we had a good view of the way up to The Cairnwell summit - which we would be back for later on. The landscape was more dramatic and far more scenic than I had expected, as we first headed to the top of Carn nan Sac and then on to the summit of Carn a' Gheoidh (passing a couple of Arctic Hares).

We paused at the summit to slap on some more suncream before retracing our steps and heading for the ugly summit that is: The Cairnwell. It wasn't long before we were heading up the steeper scree and approaching the summit buildings. However, it was a bit of a struggle as the wind was absolutely hammering across us and made the final few metres quite challenging indeed. As soon as we reached the top, we took shelter behind the buildings and admired the view to the East across the Cairngorms.

As we headed back down to the car over the grassy, we passed more hares darting around. Herbie was buzzing that he was able to increase his Munro tally by 3 so easily and I was really happy with how the short day had gone. The walk was actually a great deal more enjoyable and scenic than I had expected - very underrated. On the way into Braemar for some grub, we spotted a large heard of Red Deer in the heather at the side of the road - a great day.

[chrismcmorris]

Skiing at Glenshee

After a great day bagging Driesh and Mayar yesterday, most of the GWC staff were heading back down the road to Edinburgh to get back before dark. However, as we were this far North I wanted to make the most of the time we had in the wintery conditions. A few of us decided to head to Glenshee to get a day in skiing. I had been skiing in Andorra and Austria before a few years ago but I had never skied in Scotland; this seemed like a good opportunity as there was so much snow about.

A group of us left early, said goodbye to the others and set off up the road to Glenshee. As we approached the ski centre, we could see just how good the runs looked; they all had a good covering of powder. I had driven through this way a couple of times in winter in the past but the runs never looked anywhere near as good as they did today. It was also clear that many other folk had the same idea as we did - the car park was rammed with families.

After we had braved the crowds to hire skis, boots, poles and purchase our lift passes, we headed for the slopes. I was a little unsteady at first so took a bit of time to get my ski legs and ski head back on with a few easy runs down on the Carn Aosda side before heading up for a few runs on The Cairnwell. The runs were in great condition and the skiing was just as good (if not better) than what I remember experiencing in Austria a few years ago.

After a while we headed across the road to the runs on the Meall Odhar side. I wasn't sure what to expect here because I had never seen these tows running before today. To my surprise, there seemed to be even more snow and even better skiing on this side! There was so much snow that you could pretty much ski on any part of the mountain and there was little to distinguish between what was a 'run' and what wasn't. We had great fun skiing down the small valley to the North of Glas Maol.

After a full day on the slopes, we were treated to a fantastic orange glow of the sun setting to the West above the snowy Cairngorms - what a day and what a weekend!