Summer around the Cairgorms...An Sgarsoch and Carn Ealar..

Are 2 of the most remote munros; yet oddly two of the relatively easy ones. This is because you can bike most of the way in from Linn of Dee to the foot of the mountains. I'd done this before - hiring a bike at Braemar Mountain Sports, cycling in; doing the peaks and flying down the descent - the way back is mostly downhill and one can enjoy oneself. I also remember the bike not being especially good - and my bum hurt a lot from the battering...

Fast forward quite a few years and Claire and I have arrived in Braemar for the start of our summer holiday; with bikes. I have brought Andruil the mountain bike and Claire had brought her hybrid. After a quick ride yesterday we elected to switch the hybrid and hire Claire a mountain bike - from the same shop. Here all similarities ended; a lovely Trek was procured and tested and we were ready to go.

Claire has not done a lot of biking recently - however we had a reasonable pace along the 8 miles of the walk in; until we hit the ford. The ford is over the Geldie Burn - I remember it being bloody cold in October; luckily it was a fair bit warmer. I got suckered into trying a bit of a fancy way to cross; which still landed us with wet feet. From there we cycled a little bit further into the hills - one more pure singletrack this time. The path was constructed but much narrower than the path I remembered. From a point where we left the bikes, it was time to go on foot.

Carn Ealar from the walk in

The first part of the walk was nice and pleasant; gaining height gently as we followed the path and then dropping down to the burn that flows from the col between the peaks. Carn Ealar was the first peak we aimed for; a quite stiff climb on what was becoming a warm day. Oddly there is no real path; the peak can be climbed from several directions, so we picked a line up, interspersed with a lunch stop along the way.

An Sgarsoch from Carn Ealar

From the summit there were great views of the empty wastes of the Tarf/Tilt/Fehsie watersheds and through to the western peaks around Blair Atholl (only about 10 miles by foot but 50-60 by road). Our route lay along a nice path which then disappeared to quite a steep drop to the col under An Sgarsoch. The re-ascent was also quite steep and trackless for the most part - although we picked a much better line this time and reached the summit a fair bit quicker. The last food went and then it was time for the descent. Again with no path, the line was fairly obvious and we were able to skirt the last snowfields before dropping down to the path we had walked on in the morning. Having retrieved the bikes, Claire made a mockery of her doubts over riding ability as she negotiated the single-track back to the ford. Going straight over was much more sensible and we were soon embarked on the ride back. It's a fair old slog at the end; the last 1km being basically uphill - so the evening dip in the Lin of Dee was very much needed.

Sgor Gaoith from An Sgarsoch