| Date | 10 May 2025 |
| Route | Link to Route |
| Enjoyable | |
| Difficulty | |
| Conditions | Beautiful Sunny day, but pretty windy at times |
| Summits | ✔ (T) A' Choinneach ✔ (C) Creag Mhor |
Another great weather weekend, so headed out to Cairngorm myself to complete the missing Bynack More Top and pocket another Corbett.
Arrived at bit later than I wanted at the Cairngorm Mountain car park, but was ready to go by half nine. First stage was heading up to Ptarmigan station via the Windy Ridge path, taking in some nice views of the northern corries and Braeriach.
From here instead of heading up the Cairngorm path, headed east along the top of the ski slope and headed down the path towards Loch A'an. After the initial section the path peters out around a small stream crossing, I ended up too far down and had to skirt around some rocks and contour around before rejoining the path. I bumped into a couple of other walkers that had made the same mistake.
At the bottom I headed up the side of the first top a little and found a great spot to have an early lunch looking down the length of the Loch. From here it was a straightforward hike up to the Munro Top, A' Choinneach, which completes all the Bynack More tops.
I had planned to head over to the Barns of Bynack before dropping down into the Lairig an Laoigh, but decided to try from the bealach keeping a little north of the waterfall in between some crags. The descent was pretty steep through mostly heather and some odd mossy sections; this would have been much trickier if it had been raining recently. In hindsight it would have been better with the original plan as the slope is less steep.
Once on the Lairig an Laoigh path I headed due east straight towards the top of the Corbett, Creag Mhor. By the time I reached the tor the wind was really getting up, however it wasn't cold like last weekend. I didn't hang around, first heading south west via the rocky top marked 875m on the map then due west to rejoin the path.
I took another break to change socks and fuel up before heading back towards the saddle. The path from here heads south to the Mountain Bothy Associations Avon Refuge, basically a small hut surrounded by stone walls. Taking the west path its a pretty easy walk back to the eastern end of Loch A'an, however the path does disappear in a few places, but easy to rejoin.
From Loch A'an there are two paths, one heads along the shore, the other which I took heads a little up hill towards the saddle. The middle section of the path goes through some bigger boulders and does require hands on at times.
Now on the path from this morning, it was pretty easy to follow the path on the way up, however I lost the path again around the 950m mark, but once I was over the stream I followed it up until I rejoined the path.
Once on the bealach below the Cairngorm I was awarded a fantastic view towards Glenmore and Aviemore. I took a short break at Ptarmigan station before heading down the Windy Ridge path, today living up to its name as the wind was really getting up. Some horrible steps on this path which my knees don't like at the end of a walk!!
At the car it was such a lovely day I setup the camp chair and enjoyed a nice brew before heading home.
