Claire and I had headed north in Suilvan for the weekend - with a glorious day forecast for Sunday and seemingly a fair bit of snow. We arrived in our usual layby on Friday evening and settled down for the night in Suilvan (who had come back from the garage with a new battery to help him start in the cold mornings). It was the first time that we had used the insulating covers for the front windows as well to try and keep some of the heat in - the forecast was for cold.
So it transpired, Suilvan started first time on Saturday morning but we had trouble getting out of the car-park. We then had a half-hour at the bottom of the ski road as a vehicle had left the road. The plan for the day was to have a day of ice-axe braking practice - THE essential skill for anyone who wants to go mountaineering in winter (I contend there is no such thing as winter walking in Scotland). However it looked like the snow might be far too soft to allow any practice. So it transpired when we arrived at Coire Cas to find a very strong wind and light snow showers..so we decided to drive back down and have a wander in Glenmore Forest...at least that is what we had in mind.
Suilvan, unfortunately, couldn't get any traction at all...so some frantic digging with ice-axes and pushing followed, eventually we got him away. The drive back down was ok and the walk in the forest lovely, lots of snow to play in and time to recharge the batteries. An early night was had - we all looked forward to next day.
Sunday dawned - no problem getting out of the car-park this time and we tootled into Aviemore for breakfast at the mountain cafe - this being a short walk there was not a huge amount of time pressure. This being done we drove down the A9 to Balsporran Cottages where we parked. Quite a few cars were there including a couple with ski's, which I thought was a little optimistic.
Geal-Charn is 'only' 917m (one of the smaller Munro's) and the start is at around 425m so the first part of the day was not too taxing. There was a good path all the way up and lots of footprints to follow. Claire set a lovely pace on the ascent and we were on the summit by 11.45. The skiers had been able to use ski's for the last third of the ascent and were now preparing to descend to the col between the two peaks. The view from the summit was pretty impressive (as can be seen from the pictures), with the hills of Ben Alder forest looking VERY appealing.
Our descent to the col was not quite as smooth - there was a lot more snow on the leeward side and I struggled to find any rhythm on the descent. The subsequent climb was a bit better, although the snow was certainly deeper than the ascent of Geal-Charn. Upon reaching the summit ridge, which links the hill to Beinn Udlamain - we turned right and wandered slowly along to the cairn on top of A'Mharconaich. I had done these hills before - many years ago on a day of low cloud and no views, so it was nice to do them again and to be able to see something!!
The start of the descent route is quite steep - so it was great to see that Claire's technique and confidence had improved so much she could tackle it whilst munching a sandwich!! Once down this it was quite a long descent down to the valley - with the river crossing being negated by using the railway for 50m and back to see Suilvan after a 4 3/4 hr round. To cap off a lovely day, the drive back was one of the best we've ever had - a quick 5 hours or so saw us back in Cumbria.
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