| Date | 16 Aug 2025 |
| Route | Link to Route |
| Enjoyable | |
| Difficulty | |
| Conditions | Very warm and dry |
| Summits | ✔ (T) Beinn a' Bhuird South Top ✔ (M) Beinn a' Bhuird [Beinn a' Bhuird North Top] ✔ (T) Cnap a' Chleirich ✔ (M) Ben Avon - Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe ✔ (T) Carn Eas ✔ (T) Creag an Dail Mhor |
For our first wild camping hike we opted for some eastern Cairngorm Munros starting from Linn of Quoich.
The path heads up through the trees and quite quickly joins onto a landrover track. After a couple of kilometres there is a path off to the right which follows the river. Around a kilometre along the path there is a diversion path heading left that bypasses some storm damage, which we missed, but there was only a short section where we were walking on dry river bed to re-join the path.
Further on the path re-joins the landrover track and progress is much quicker; after a while we reached the ford over the Allt an Dubh-ghlinne, which today was no deeper than the soles of our boots. At the branch in the path we took a well deserved rest; we were feeling the heavier than normal packs, not helped but the heat, but still had kept up a good pace.
From here, it was steady climbing, first through some sparse trees, then round the east side of Carn Allt na Beinne, which felt steep at times. However, once we reached the ridge and the small shelter the ascent eased off a bit until we were just below the bealach, where it steepens a little. At one point the path splits, we took the one to the right, but both join the same path above the cliffs overlooking Dubh Lochan.
We dropped our bags and popped up to the South Munro Top, which only takes around 5 minutes each way. When we returned to our bags we headed down to collect some water, but it was clear we'd need to descent several hundred metres to reach good water, so decided to try another source later on.
Gathering our bags we headed north along the path, soon reaching our first Munro, Beinn a' Bhuird. During a break at the summit, we decided to skip the outlying Top, Stob an t-Sluich, partly due to fatigue, but also as we wanted to set up camp and get supper soon.
The path towards the next Munro Top disappeared regularly, but was easy to make a bee line directly towards it. However, just before it we managed to get water from one of the streams heading down into the corrie, the water looked good, but we filtered to be safe.
Once over the second Munro Top of Cnap a'Chleirich, we continued east and headed down the very steep, slippy and gravelly path to the Sneck. Here we found a flat spot just below the path and set up camp. We boiled up some Wayfarer Chicken Tikka, much nicer than their Peri-Peri, and some Chocolate Pudding and turned in for an early night.
We had planned to get up along with the sunrise, but we both slept about an hour longer. After some all day breakfast packs, which we won't be having again, we broke camp and made short work of the steep climb to the plateau below our next Munro, Ben Avon, its tors making it look like something from another planet. To the east we could see a few tents that would have gotten a better view of any sunrise and access to another viable water source.
Dropping our bags at a low point before the Munro we quickly headed up and onto to the centre tor, before scrambling across to the highest point on the right. The last part is a little tricky if you head straight up, but there is an easier scramble around the south side.
After collecting our packs, we headed back past the high point at 1138m and then south towards the next Munro Top, Carn Eas, no path, mostly grass and rocky sections. We stopped at the summit for another break. Heading south east for a short distance over some rocky ground, then down a very steep slope to the col which would be pretty tricky in poor conditions.
At this point Ailidh decided she would miss out the next Top, instead opting for a path that contours round onto the ridge below the Top. I nipped up and bagged the Munro Top, Creag an Dail Mhor; the climb is straightforward, but did feel a bit tough in the conditions. The descent down the ridge to re-join Ailidh was very rocky, almost a boulder field in places.
Heading down the ridge, we skirted past Carn Eag Dhubh and zig zagged down the west face to join the path that heads up to the Sneck. Following the path south then east alongside the Quoich Water we headed back towards the ford we crossed the day before, stopping around half way to refill our water, which we seemed to be using a lot of today.
Eventually we reached the ford and headed back along the path from the day before. We nearly missed the turn off the landrover track, but we did find the bypass path, which we probably could have avoided as its quite boggy and lots of trees to negotiate. It did feel a long slog back to the car, not helped with heavy packs, almost no wind, and it turned out 26 degrees!!
Instead of our usual brew up, we stopped in Ballater for some really cold Iron Bru, before the long drive home.
