Cairngorms East of Lairig Ghru

The day dawned clear and bright so it was with great expectation that I set off along the road that lead from Aviemore to the ski resort ready for a wonderful day in the mountains. The mess of the ski lift paraphernalia was as depressing as I expected but the wonderful sight of hills emerging from a layer of mist diverted my attention from it as I ascended towards the Ptarmigan Restaurant. After the highly engineered climb up to the top of Cairngorm, the rest of the day was spent in midst of the most dramatic mountain scenery in Britain. The descent from Cairngorm towards Loch Avon was steep and there were cliffs to navigate around and then once down it was back up again on the walk towards the outlying peak of Bynack More. This did seem quite a long way away and the route then had to be repeated to bring me back to the outlet at Loch Avon. The ascent of Beinn Mheadhoin was steep with 500m of ascent but the wonderful blocky summit with it’s granite tors was well worth the effort. It was then on toward Loch Etchachan and the out and back trip to the fourth peak of the day, Derry Cairngorm. After a bite to eat it was back to the path above Loch Etchachan and then the gently rise to the final summit of the day, Ben Macdui. Suddenly when I reached the summit, there were lots of people about after a day to myself in the hills. The descent and climb to potentially the sixth Munro of the day, Carn a’Mhaim was left to another day since this would have meant a really late finish to the day. I headed off North for the long walk back to the ski resort. A magical and incredibly memorable day that must count as probably my best Munro day yet.