Carn a'Mhaim & Ben Macdui

Carn a'Mhaim

After the lovely weekend's weather, I was watching the forecast and today's was looking good, so I decided to take the day off work and go for a big trip in the Cairngorms. Unfortunately, by the time it got to today, the weather wasn't quite as nice as originally forecast. It was mild though, 12 degC at the Linn of Dee when I set off in the morning.

I started at Linn of Dee, and cycled along the nice track to Derry Lodge, a now boarded up hunting lodge. It's common for people to leave their bikes here as the paths beyond aren't quite as nice, or people are doing the big loop around Derry Cairngorm, Ben Macdui and back, and this is where all the paths return to. My route today did have a loop but not as big, and I continued to cycle on to Luibeg burn.

After crossing the bridge, the ground soon beomes very muddy and boggy, with the bike wheels disappearing half way into the mud. It was hard work finding a path across, but once that was done the track was reasonable again. There were some surface drains across the path but they were wide and easy to cycle over, but as I neared Luibed these became more rocky and less navigable whilst cycling. I reached Luibeg and wanted to leave my bike near the bridge, as this would be where I'd be coming on the way back.

There are actually three routes from east to west from when you meet the trees at Luibeg. I'd planned to take the upper route, ended up on the lower route, and found that the middle one would've been best! I ended up trying to get my bike through the woods on a tiny track, with rocks and roots and all sorts. It was not easy, but I eventually made it to the bridge. I left my bike there, crossed the bridge and walked down to rejoin the path before taking the northern split to ascent Carn a Mhaim. As I was walking up I realised I'd lost my LoRa tracker somewhere in those woods. It was on the top of my bag and the trees must've knocked it off. 😢 It wasn't on as there are no igates nearby and I'm in the valley, so it's not like I can even track the tracker!

As I climbed I entered the cloud and the lovely views all disappeared. The walk up was steep but straightforward.

Then out of the mist the summit cairn appeared and I setup for my first activation of the day. I'd hoped to qualify the summit on 2m, so I could get moving, but being mid-week I wasn't hopeful. I did get three 2m QSOs fairly quickly, and then set up the quick 5.5m vertical for 20m. Contacts came in quick with that and then I thought I heard Bill, GM0NRT, call on 20m but I think it was on the HT still and then in my confusion the chasers stopped. However, I had enough contacts so just packed up. As I was doing so, Denis, MM0CBC, was out on a summit further west near Aviemore and he'd just reached the top. We had a tricky QSO as Bill thought I was speaking to him still on 2m, he struggled to hear me but heard me asking Denis to QSY, again thinking it was me asking Bill to QSY! Denis couldn't hear Bill so it was probably confusing for him too but we made it in the end. As I was chatting with Denis, a lady came by to the summit. She was curious as to what I was doing and we had a brief chat. She then left and continued up to Ben Macdui. I packed up and started towards it myself.

The path that continues towards Ben Macdui follows the ridge between the two glens until it gets to the side of the mountain. This is quite a narrow ridge, but thankfully the wind was gentle. The clouds did start to part and I had a few glimpses down into Lairig Ghru, including Corrour bothy at the foot of Cairn Toul and Devil's Point climb.

Then on to Ben Macdui!

Ben Macdui

Ben Macdui is Scotland's (and the UK's) second highest mountain at 1,309 m, only beaten by 36m by the famous Ben Nevis. My journey continues from Carn A' Mhaim, whereby I walked along the ridge, then down (unfortunately) to the side of Ben Macdui. I'd caught up with the lady who passed me at the previous summit, and so we ended up walking to the summit of Ben Macdui together. She was visiting from Manchester and staying a few days in Braemar. She asked lots of questions about amateur radio and seemed interested, particularly in SOTA. Once we started going back up the hill it was just boulders for as far as the eye can see - although we were once again in the cloud so not that far.

The path came and went a few times as we went up, occasionally small patches of red sandstone gravel could be spotted, and we followed that as best we could. We came to a small stream to cross and that meant we were nearing the top, and the boulders eased off. Soon enough the trig point and cairn appeared in the cloud and we'd made it!

There were a few other people at the top, and a trickle of walkers continued for most of the time I was there. I looked around and found another sheltered cairn to setup behind. There wasn't much wind at the top, but being in the cloud was a bit damp. Water would condense on the mast and wires and then drip down onto me (and radio if I wasn't careful).

I had hoped 2m would be good from up here, certainly during the 145 Alive event, Fraser made contacts all over Scotland and north England. However, after Fraser and calling CQ a few times it seemed no-one was listening and I went to 40m - I also knew I had a long way back to go and didn't want to hang about too long. 40m was good, with 13 contacts, including a summit to summit with 2W0OMX on GW/SW-001 - the tallest Brecon Beacon in Wales. As I was thinking of packing up I heard a mobile station call on 2m, and had a brief chat with him. I'd been on the air for about 30 minutes and it was time to pack up and head down.

The lady (who I never asked her name) who climbed with me had gone on to do the big loop around Derry Cairngorm and back to Derry Lodge. I'd looked at that route but it would add at least 30 minutes, and I was on a schedule to get home for 5pm, so I'll save that Munro for next year. A bit of wandering around and I found my route down, and after not very long the clouds started to part and the views improved considerably!

I soon found the path in the photo above, and then it was plain sailing from there. It did get quite steep in places on the way down but manageable. The cloud had cleared more in the glen too, so looking back the mountainsides were impressive to see.

My route back to my bike made me realise I didn't want to leave my bike right by the bridge as now I had to go down to get it. Going down was easy enough but then getting my bike back was a pain. I decided to carry my bike back up to the top path but this was a mistake as the path was narrow, rocky and difficult to cycle. I should've kept it to the middle path. If I do this route again, I might even leave the bike at the start of the trees and just walk. It would mean crossing the burn at the ford, and risk getting wet at the start of the journey!

Back on the reasonable path towards Derry Lodge, navigating the bog and mud again before crossing the bridge - that's slightly too narrow to easily push my bike over! I was washing the mud off my wheels in the stream when the lady I'd met earlier was crossing the bridge! Seems like my estimate of 30 minutes extra for the Derry Cairngorm route was about right as that's how long I was on the radio for, so good to know for next time.

The cycle from Derry Lodge back to Linn of Dee car park is very easy, although I'd not be wanting to walk all that way! I was back home by 5pm, just in time to take the boys for their haircuts!