For ski touring in Scotland the classic challenge is to do the four 4000 feet peaks in the Cairngorms. The peaks are Cairn Gorm (1245 m), Ben Macdui (1309 m), Cairntoul (1291 m) and Braeriach (1296 m). This tour is over 30 km long and there are more than 2000 m to ascend and descend. Here is a video of the main ski run down Ben Macdui before we tell the story with pictures:
On Saturday at 7 h Paul, fit after an Ironman triathlon last year and just back from two weeks of ski touring in Chamonix, and I were skinning up the piste...
... to reach the hoared up summit of Cairn Gorm.
The descent was somewhat tricky as we had to avoid half covered boulders. But what a view towards the Northern Corries and the Loch Avon basin.
Here is Paul milking the descent with the top of Carn Etchachan to the left.
We eventually put the skins back on and made quick progress...
... towards Ben Macdui...
... which we reached in a whiteout. Skins off for arguably the best ski descent in Scotland which is the Allt Clach nan Taillear burn. It starts at 1309 m, the Ben Macdui summit, and goes down to under 600 m into the Lairig Ghru. Here is Paul leading the way...
... and here is Paul's shot of myself which for me is the shot of the day. Just to my right in the distance is the devils point.
We crossed the Dee on a snow bridge and were skinning up just to the right of the Devils point.
The forecast predicted a calm morning followed by an accelerating Southerly in the afternoon and so it happened as forecast. When we reached Cairn Toul and the Angel's Peak, the wind was already strong and we skinned several long hours in a whiteout to reach the summit of Braeriach (or thereabouts) in a near gale. Here we nearly skied into a steep corrie on the left but we took the skis off and climbed back onto the ridge. Skins off for some descending...
... back on for another short ascent...
... and we finally reached a snowfield just to left of the wide ridge that leads from Sron na Lairig into the glen and out of the wind.
We managed to reach the Lairig Ghru mostly on snow but then had to take off our skis and walk...
... through the Chalamain Gap, where an avalanche had caused a disaster earlier in the winter. We remebered the victims...
... and carried on to reach more snow which allowed us to skin the last kilometers to the car park where we ended, with little glycogen left in our legs, our winter seasons.
HW
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