Hills: Monadh Mor and Beinn Bhrotain
Date: Saturday 20th October 2012
Company: Myself, Rachel and Beinn
Distance: 28km, Ascent: 1610m
Time: 8Hrs 10Mins
Dog friendly: Yes

In advance of attending our Club’s monthly bus meet tomorrow, myself and Rachel decided to also head out today to ascend some hills. Rachel came up with the idea of ascending Monadh Mor and Beinn Bhrotain. Having only ascended these hills once previously, back in 2001, I was also keen to re-ascend them.

We parked in the large car park, circa 800m North of Auchlean.

Click here to see a map of the route undertaken

From the car park, we made our way towards Auchlean. On reaching the large cairn at the roadside, we took the path that ascends towards Carn Ban Mor.

Glen Feshie at dawn:


The path ascending Carn Ban Mor is now excellent having had a lot of work done on it to prevent further erosion.

Looking back to Glen Feshie from ascent of Carn Ban Mor:


Having ascended this path numerous times previously, I was looking forward to reaching its high-point and continuing on to less-frequented territory.

Ascending Carn Ban Mor:


I took several photos today of Sgor Gaoith. It is a superb hill, one of my favourites in the Cairngorms. The summit is perched on the edge of a line of cliffs dropping 600m down to Loch Eanaich.

Sgor Gaoith (zoom):


The views this morning were a touch disappointing, as most of the high peaks were capped with cloud.

Looking towards cloud-capped Braeraich, Angel’s Peak and Cairn Toul:


After circa 150m descent, we crossed the Allt Sgairnich and then made our way to the summit of Tom Dubh, a Munro Top of Braeraich.

Summit of Tom Dubh:


Looking back towards the cliffs of Sgor Gaoith:


From the summit of Tom Dubh, we descended directly towards the Allt Luineag. The crossing of the Allt Luineag was not straight-forward today.

After crossing the Allt, using a number of partially-submerged boulders, we started our ascent of Monadh Mor. The ascent of Monadh Mor was fairly pleasant.

Looking back to Tom Dubh and Mullach Clach a’Bhlair:


We reached the snowline at circa 1000m. We only encountered an inch or so of snow today and it was all very soft.

Ascent of Monadh Mor:


I was particularly impressed with the view across to the Devil’s Point today.

Devil’s Point and Carn a’Mhaim:


At the summit of Monadh Mor, we stopped for our first bite to eat. Beinn was quite content to share my sandwich.

Beinn at the summit of Monadh Mor:


From Monadh Mor, we made our way across to Beinn Bhrotain. I wasn’t looking forward to having to re-ascend Monadh Mor to get back to Glen Feshie. A traverse from Auchlean to Linn of Dee would have been a nicer option.

Beinn Bhrotain from Monadh Mor:


Angel’s Peak, Ben Macdui, Devil’s Point and Carn a’Mhaim:


Glen Geusachan:


It didn’t take long to reach the bealach between Monadh Mor and Beinn Bhrotain. From there we followed a path ascending a short distance up Beinn Bhrotain before ascending the boulderfield.

Looking back to Monadh Mor from slopes of Beinn Bhrotain:


Ascent through boulderfield on Beinn Bhrotain:


At the summit we only stopped long enough for a few photos before returning to the summit of Monadh Mor.

Rachel planking the trig point at the summit of Beinn Bhrotain:


Myself and Beinn at the summit of Beinn Bhrotain:


Devil’s Point (zoom):


From Beinn Bhrotain, we returned to the summit of Monadh Mor where we had a short break.

Sgor Gaoith:


During our ascent of the track leading towards Carn Ban Mor, we got our first clear views of the day of Angel’s Peak and Cairn Toul. At last they were out of cloud!

Braeraich, Angel’s Peak and Cairn Toul:


Cairn Toul (zoom):


Sgor Gaoith and Braeraich:


I found the ascent to the high-point of the track quite hard work, I think due to a combination of too many late nights, a head cold and sore feet from breaking-in new boots. During the descent we saw a couple of gliders circling above Glen Feshie.

Glider:


Descent to Glen Feshie:


Was great to get back to the car park and get the boots off.

A good day out .