Over The Hill

On our fourth day of impeccable weather we set off just after 0800 from the Ski Centre car park on the slopes of Cairngorm, following the steadily rising path into Coire an t- Sneachda with its two small lochans at the base of the cliffs , still in shadow from the early morning sun. Directly ahead a steep little path locally known as the Goat Track took us quickly to the plateau. This path is very steep and often blocked by large snow patches late in the season making for a tricky descent – much easier going up. Our route took us SE over the high level springs to the steep descent into Coire Domhain, to quickly join the Feith Buidhe tumbling down from the slopes of Macdhui. What a view from here, along the length of Loch Avon with our mountain rearing up to the south and flanked by the massive cliffs of the Stag Rocks and the Sticil Face of Carn Etchachan.

All too soon we were down to 750m at the loch and plodding up the stony path to Loch Etchachan, making a bee-line for the W summit of Mheadhoin over mossy slopes to reach the ridge. The main summit is the highest of a series of granite tors, still over 1km away to the NE. Finally we made it – four and a quarter hours from the start and finished with a tricky scramble to reach the summit block.

After a bite we retraced our steps with a welcome breeze in the hot sun, following the network of paths round the Shelter Stone to reach the lochside and the bliss of a paddle to get feet back to normal size!

We decided to return by the “Trade Route” in these parts - Coire Raibert , and ran into a bit of trouble. The route follows the gully of the burn but was severely eroded in its lower section so we decided (wrongly!!) to take to the steep E wall of the gully resulting in some serious heather and rock bashing before gaining the mossy plateau above – could have done without this at the end of the day! 30mins later we relaxed as we crossed the rim of Coire Cas and the ski slopes came in sight.

A delightful day in brilliant sunshine with some cool breezes just when we needed it. Superb rock scenery around Loch Avon, but watch out for that climb back up!