Autumn in Scotland part 2....

or the one where Claire comes face to face with winter conditions in the Cairngorms!!

and make no mistake - conditions were wintry. There was not much snow around on the summits - although more than enough to make winter boots a must - but Claire got her first real experience of the winter wind and chill.

The day had started promisingly well - a good early(ish!!!!) start and a good walk in. Our destination today was Bynack More, well over 1000m but still an outlier of the Cairngorm massif - seperated from the main plateau by the Saddle and Strath Nethy. I had done the mountain and its two satellite tops after my finals (a few [ahem]) years ago - and remembered the walk down Strath Nethy as being long...it had not prepared me for what we got...more of that later.

We followed the same approach through the forest and past Glenmore Lodge as yesterday (in fact I parked next to the Lodge to save 1 mile of road walking - not good for my knees/heel in big boots). When the paths split we went up towards the Lairig an Laoigh. The Cairngorms are split by the two great Lairig's - passes - and the path we followed wound steeply uphill before dropping down to cross the Avon (pronounced A'an) and go to Braemar. Our speed up the steep climb was excellent  - steady and sustained - and we soon left the main path to start the climb to the summit of Bynack More. At this point we met the snowline. The snow was not a problem with its depth nor was it especially icy. We had not brought either crampons or ice-axe (tho we had them in the van) and neither was remotely needed. What it did do was slow us down as the path had disappeared as it wended its way in and out of the granite tors, which made the going arkward as it was. We then got joined by some driving hail/snow and a strong wind. I should have insisted that Claire wrap up very well and drink more - one of Claire's few faults is that she doesn't drink anywhere near enough fluid on walks - however she soldiered on well until just below the summit, where she started to feel very weak. Luckily, some hot ribena, christmas cake and more clothes did the trick and we were soon on top. We elected to descend over Bynack Beg (Beg/beag means small in Gaelic) and thence down the Strath Nethy.

The first part of the descent was done in excellent style and we soon made the Strath - despite a progressively worsening path and my broken trekking pole. What followed was quite possibly the worst path I have ever walked on - with the possible exceptions of Bleaklow and Black Hill. I am going to post a specific post on this with thoughts about path management later so will not say too much more at the moment. We eventually joined the main path we had followed up the hill and, now in heavy rain, made the final few km back to the van.

Our fun for the night was not over - we arrived at Glenmore Lodge to eat in the Lochain Bar to find it was late opening as the bar staff were late back from the hill!!! One good chicken curry later and we were ready for the next day...