Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

I took advantage of a likely break in the weather over the holiday period to snatch a day in the hills.  I've got a store of likely options in my head and I plucked an interesting day trip out and put it to good use. The remote eastern Cairngorm Munros were the aim, requiring a drive to Braemar and a long walk in, which I avoided again by putting my mountain bike to use. I was up at 4am to get the 2 1/2 hour drive and the 1 hour cycle done in the dark.  However, my body didn't play ball and I had to stop just past Blairgowrie for another cold hour's sleep in the car.  Still, I pulled into the car park at Invercauld Bridge not much after 8am and the sun was only just rising as I set off on the bike. It was well below freezing and the tips of my fingers were very cold for the first 30 minutes of riding but the rest of me was warm enough.  The ride from Invercauld to Slugain is up tarmac and then forest track.  After a while, much of the track was partly covered in ice, which made cycling interesting but still possible, with care. There was cloud down in the glen but I could see blue skies poking through from time to time.  About mile from Slugain, the track became icier as I rode above the snow level.  Then, the first problem of the day - a puncture.  I use UST (tubeless) tyres on my bike, which shouldn't puncture (in theory) but the one thing they are susceptible to is sidewall damage, and, right enough, I had sliced a 2 inch gash through the rear tyre.  I don't bother carrying a spare tube since the tyres can be ridden when flat (with difficulty) and changing to use a tube is tricky.  This is a strategy that I think I'll have to rethink. Anyway, nothing could be done about it, so I stashed the bike at the side of the track and got on with the walk.  Luckily, I was more or less at the point where I would have left the bike anyway, so I didnt lose much time. I walked past the ruin and saw a couple of walkers on their way out.  The size of their packs indicated that they had been camping.  It's an idyllic spot up their, I must return with a tent myself at some point. The cloud was still down but the track was simple enough to follow.  I cut off for the path over the stream which let up to the southern top of Beinn a' Bhuird.  I was aiming to get high above the clouds and into the sun as quickly as possible.  I made good progress, although I'm not in great walking shape at the moment, until I hit a snow patch on the track for a few hundred metres.  The snow was lying off-camber and was hard and icy, so I had to put my crampons on.  The I hit rockier ground which meant taking them off again.  I didn't need them again until the end of the day. Soon enough, I was onto the plateau.  The views opened out all around me.  Visibility was perfect.  I could see out towards Lochnagar, with the clouds still hanging in the glens making the mountains look like they were poking above a sea.  These sort of conditions are very rare, so I was particularly fortunate.  The northern Cairngorms around Macdui seemed very close and made me want to visit them again soon, hopefully for some mountaineering. About halfway to the main, northern top, I met the only other walkers I saw all day (which is an indication of how remote these mountains are).  They'd been camping for a couple of days in Garbh Choire and were walking out with their massive packs.  They took a photo of me with my cheap disposable camera (I need to get a nice new shiny compact digital) and I headed off to the tiny cairn at the highest point of the mountain.  This would be difficult to find in the clouds. The walking conditions were amazing - crunchy, springy, hard snow which seems to propel you along.  The views of the corries around the east side of the peak were amazing too.  Already, there is sizeable cornice build-up.  There looks to be some nice winter climbing in there - the remote aspect of the hills mean that you are likely to be on your own too, unlike the northern Cairngorm corries. No rest for me and I charged off towards the Sneck below Ben Avon.  I had a few tricky bits of hard snow to negotiate on the steep path down but I didn't bother with my crampons again and managed to bumble down ok.  The steep pull up from the Sneck was quickly polished off without too much effort.  I do like being fit - often in the past when I've been hillwalking, I've relied on inherent fitness, which usually means struggling at some point. The summit plateau of Ben Avon is littered with some amazing rock scenery - tors.  I made my way to the highest, and largest of these and clambered up onto the top.  It was a bit windy up there, so I didn't linger.  I took shelter and had my first and only break of the day for a couple of minutes.  Then, no point in lingering, I could enjoy the views well enough on the move, I headed off southwards.  I was going to head back to the Sneck and walk off the mountain down the easy route but decided to stay high for as long as possible and take the risk that the slope down to the path wasn't too steep. One of the highlights of the day was on the walk off Avon.  I disturbed a very large white Arctic Hare, which bowled off away from me at great speed.  I also saw a fair number of grouse and ptarmigan during the day, always flying away from me as I blundered towards them. As it turned out, it wasn't too bad, although I had to don crampons again for a few hundred metres of steep, hard snow.  Then, I had some deep heather to wade through before hitting the path.  My dodgy right ankle wasn't too keen on this but it survived well enough. 30 minutes on the path and I was back at the bike.  I'd been walking for a little over 5 hours, bang on my guesstimated time. Onto the bike and I had to deal with the flat back tyre.  Still, it was mostly downhill, so still quick enough.  After a couple of miles, the rockier track and ice ended and the bike was easy enough to ride, if a little uncomfortable.  I really have to commend the UST system since it allowed me to get off the hill without having to make a repair.  Still, it's a dear do and the tyre needs replaced now and that'll be about £40 or so. It only took me 45 minutes to ride back to the car, where if I'd been walking, it would have taken me over 2 hours.  A highly recommend approach, if you have the kit. All in all, it was a brilliant day, in perfect conditions.  I took a bunch of (hopefully) decent photos on the disposable.  I'll get them up on flickr as soon as I have them developed and scanned (how lo-fi). Update: My photos are now processed and upload for your perusal.