The Occasional Munroist - Cairngorm 4000ers Day 2

Distance:	16Km
Height ascended:	1100m
Time taken:	6 hours
Munros:	Ben Macdui (1309m) and Cairngorm (1245m).

The second day of my trip around the Cairngorm 4000ers started fairly early. No matter how comfortable my chosen spot, I'm never a great sleeper in a tent, particularly in the middle of summer when the sun rises so early. I've found that using an eye mask (like those people have when travelling by plane) does help enormously, even so by 6am I was wide awake and ready to get moving. I guess these days, with an energetic toddler who likes to wake early, my body is fairly accustomed to it anyway. The bonus of getting out of the tent early was seeing the sun rise above Ben Macdui and start to reach into the Lairig Ghru. The sky was clear and blue and the sun slowly illuminated the steep sides of Devil's Point and Cairn Toul in front of me as I ate my breakfast, a truly stunning view.

By 7am I was fed, packed and ready to be moving. Given that the day was to start with a brutal 2000feet of ascent up to the summit of Macdui it was definitely worth getting moving before the sun started warming things up. The route was to go up the side of Allt Clach nan Tailleur. I think this is the standard way to get to the summit, certainly it seemed reasonable to me on the map, but I've seen a number of people complain about the lack of a path in route reports. Anyone who expects a continuous clear path to follow has clearly spent too much time in the Lake District and is not that accustomed to the Scottish hills. The lower section was a hack through the boggy heather with a fair amount of sliding around. In many ways it was a relief to get out of this and reach the boulder fields but after a while of that my legs were screaming. Last year I did a single-day route which crossed this boulder field from Cairn a'Mhaim and I hated it then with a much lighter pack. A full 14Kg pack made this ascent really tough, one of the hardest I've done without a doubt. Just to spice things up as well I found that the occassional boulder would be finely balanced in such a way that any weight placed on it sent it tipping around wildly. This was particularly scary when a huge boulder that I estimated to be several hundred kilograms did a major wobble which left me on my knees and praying it wasn't going to roll. I had momentary visions of that film "127 hours" being played out in the Cairngorms! Up here, there is pretty much no hint of a path but it is fairly clear where you have to go, if in doubt go higher...

After 2 hours of hard graft I finally reached the summit of Ben Macdui. All the effort was worth it to be on the summit at 9am well ahead of anyone else. The skies were still fairly clear and the views across the area were fantastic. At this point I took the chance to send a quick "I'm still alive" txt msg to the family, definitely the highest I've ever used a phone, as the Lairig Ghru is truly effective at blocking all means of electronic communication (just the way I like my campsites). At the summit I had my 2nd breakfast of the day since the porridge had long ago been burnt off in all my exercions. As I enjoyed the view I found I was accompanied by some small birds - snow buntings! Another arctic specialist and one I had not expected to see in the summer but it turns out they nest up there.

At this point most of the hard work was done for the day, the journey across the plateau was not going to involve too much ascent so I relaxed and set an easy pace knowing that with my early start I had a lot of time to play with. I took the chance to visit another top of Ben Macdui and get the view over to Loch Avon. That whole area looks fascinating and is completely unknown to me so definitely a target for exploration next year.

From the lower top of Macdui I set off for Cairn Lochan. I passed another herd of reindeer on the way and met the first walkers of the day coming from the opposite direction. I would swear that one of them looked a lot like Cameron McNeish but he was across the other side of yet another boulder field so I wasn't going to run over and ask for an autograph when it would then turn out to be some random munro bagger with a beard.

Cairn Lochan was reached easily and I took the chance to view some of the incredible crags in the area. From here around to Stob Coire an t-Sneachda there looks to be a huge number of possible routes. I got a chance to see the v.diff route Fingers Ridge) up from Coire an t-Sneachda that I would have done earlier in the month if it hadn't been so cold, wet and windy. It looked incredible, I really must get myself organised with someone to go back and do that route one day.

At this point the final objective was clear, the radio masts on the top of Cairngorm stand out from quite a distance. As I climbed this last hill I could sadly feel myself being drawn back into civilisation. There was the "tourist" route fenced off with blue ropes with its long line of ill-equipped, red-faced walkers who took a quick family photo and then raced back down again for a cup of tea in the cafe. There were the guided walks doing botany and geology. When I got to the summit and dumped the pack I sat back and took in the view of nearly all the summits I had covered. The cloud had come in a bit but it was still clear enough to see over to the other 4000ers - Braeriach, Sgor an Lochain Uaine, Cairn Toul, Ben Macdui. I was actually quite overwhelmed by what I had just done. I had a huge sense of achievement from getting this far, this is a huge walk by anyone's standards. I was also rather sad to be leaving, it had been a really special walk, mostly done on my own without anyone else even in view. This walk is really special because so much of it is at a really high level (for the UK, that is). It's also special for the fact that it really is quite a wild and untamed route. The challenge lies in the combination of distance, the amount of ascent, the incredibly rough ground and the typically harsh weather (although I was lucky). It's a route I would definitely love to do again one day.