Carn a'Mhaim and Sron Riach cont'd...Episode II - The Ridge!

where our intrepid hero's have reached the summit and now face ' the RIDGE'!!

The ridge in question is something I'd never done; it was supposedly the only partially rocky arete in the Gorms....Martin Moran tells some interesting tales in winter; we shall see.

Beinn a' Ghlo peeks over the shoulder of Carn a'Mhaim

Claire of course had only recently waltzed over the Horns of Beinn Alligin not turning a hair - and to be blunt this ridge is nowhere near that class (to be fair - not much in Britain is). She is also the daughter of a man who has rice on his curry sauce - she didn't turn a hari at this one either..
As a guide it's probably easier than Striding Edge or the ridge from Lliwedd to the summit of Snowden - although a bit more exposed than the latter. This must be qualified by the fact that we did it in perfect summer weather without a breath of wind at all....it probably is a different kettle of marine life in winter given the weather they get up there. Escape from the ridge would be pretty tricky apart from at either end; and it's longer than Striding Edge and somewhat more out-there (you can't see the pub for instance). At the end of were some little lochans - and a big boulder; which said lunch here - so they did.

The ridge from the climb up MacDui

The way ahead was painfully obvious - quite a big climb up the rockfields that flank MacDui before detouring off to the right to collect Sron Riach....after lunch we began the plod uphill. There is much less of a path than one might think given how popular MacDui is; I guess the %age of people doing the hill from this side is miles less than almost any other way. Much boulder hopping and flogging later we arrived at a path that came down from the summit of MacDui en route to Sron Riach and thence down to the Glen. Although we probably lost 50' of height it was a good path to take; I clambered up to the ridge to find the highest point whilst Claire sensibly didn't - I did grab some rather amazing views of Coire Sputean Dearg however (where we'd hope to climb before heat stopped play).

Once re-united we set off on the descent path - which was a joy. A well constructed path took us down the lovely ridge of Sron Riach and right to the Luiberg burn. We elected to sit in this rather than ford it! very important to cool off in all honesty. We were both out of water as well so the chance to re-fill was taken and the last xmas cake munched. From here - the path led down the glen to join the main path we'd left that morning. Once back at the bikes we cycled (again Claire doing very well indeed) back to Derry Lodge and thence back to the road...the last bit of the descent was a nice fly actually....Once again, the River Dee was beckoning.....