M&G Go For A Walk: Saturday 9 May - Lochnagar (Cac Carn Beag) and Conachcraig

Lochnagar (Cac Carn Beag - NO 243 861; 1155m) and Conachcraig (NO 279 865; 862m)

Start Point: Spittal of Glenmuick (£6 per day)

Distance and Ascent: 21.75km, 1070m

Weather: Lots of sunny intervals in the morning, then increasing light snow showers towards and beyond lunchtime.

Mick & I first had Lochnagar on our TGO Challenge Route Sheet in 2011. That was the Year of the Storm when a forecast of gusts up to 130mph put us off. We had it on our Route Sheet again a couple of years later, but although calm that year, the tops were heavily shrouded in cloud and I've long believed Lochnagar to be a summit that requires a fine day, so we bypassed it again. I think it was on another of our joint routes too, and maybe one or two of Mick's solo crossings, yet here we are 15 years later having never made it up there.

So, when I withdrew from this year's Challenge (yep, it was on that Route Sheet too), I said to Mick that we would come to Braemar and make a special effort to finally get up there. Today's forecast looked decent, and the plan as of two days ago was that we would walk up from Auchallater, exactly as per all those Challenge Route Sheets, and take in the obvious two other Munros on our way, before retracing our steps. Then tomorrow I would cycle in (as far as I could manage the gradient, at least) from Balmoral and visit the adjacent Corbett of Conachcraig.

Then, talking about the plan and the distances involved last night, I pointed out that most people would do Lochnagar from Spittal of Glenmuick and Mick suggested that's what we should do too, even though it would involve driving Bertie-the-Motorhome down 7 miles of single track road. On the revised plan, rather than doing 3 Munros, we would only do one, but instead we would combine my two Marilyns into one outing, negating the need to cycle in from anywhere tomorrow. Even better, we could do it as a circuit with two little spurs, rather than an out-and-back.

It was still quiet in the car park as we set out at 0815, opting to go in a clockwise direction so as to do the big hill first. It wasn't a bad day as we set out, but as we progressed along the side of Loch Muick, the sky really started to clear, raising optimism that we would get a cloud-free summit (there had been some low cloud around first thing).

A slightly deceptive photo, in that there was quite a bit of cloud in other directions, but so much blue in the direction we were going was encouraging.

The ascent from Glas Allt Shiel up to the top of the waterfall didn't feel as steep as the contour lines suggest (Mick was tempted to come back the same way just to find out how knee-crunching it was in descent). After the more gentle gradient alongside Glas Allt, we were above the snow line by the time we got to the next steep section, but it didn't affect us, as there are only patches hanging around now, and only on the northerly and easterly aspects.

We'd only passed two pairs descending, and no one else going in our direction, until we met the path coming in from the east, just before the first summit, which is when we came to appreciate that's the way most people ascend. Even so, we timed our arrival at the summit nicely, with only one other chap up there. He, a trainee Mountain Leader, was doing a round of 5 Munros. Once he left, it was just us as we swiftly put away our pork pies and yearned for a flask of tea (didn't pack the small flask for this trip and I wasn't going to carry the big one).

The forecast told us it was going to be -1 on the summit, with a 'feels like' of between -4 and -7, but when the sun was out, and being seated on the lee side of the summit tor, it was a perfectly pleasant temperature for sitting around. Fortunately, there was quite a bit of sun too, even though clouds had gathered in the final part of our ascent, the odd snow flake had hit us, and we could clearly see various snow showers around us.

A group of three antipodean women arrived at the base of the summit tor just as we were leaving it, but a good few more were seen as we made our way back to the junction of paths at which we would stop retracing our steps and take to what we now knew to be the more popular route, to descend to the east. I can see why it's popular (aside from the fact that it's shorter) - the views over the corrie and to the summit are incredible.

I hadn't realised this was a popular hill with tourists, which is how I'm classifying (and I accept potentially insultingly in some cases) those who were wearing ordinary street trainers, fashion jackets and school-style backpacks. There was one fairly large group who had decided, in what looked very much like street trainers, to make their way up the large snowfield that was sitting on the top of the spur on the way down to Little Pap. As they laughed and kicked their way up, I couldn't help but think that if they'd contemplated falling, they'd thought that the only implication would be landing in the snow, without realising that a fall could lead to a slide which would end with an abrupt (and potentially catastrophic) stop against a large rock. Happily they all lived to tell the tale. We walked around the edge of the snow.

Approaching the Gelder Sheil - Spittal of Glenmuick track, our path forked, and that's where Mick and I went different ways. Mick had been intending (I think!) to join me on Conachcraig, but his calf was suggesting that wasn't the wisest choice, so he continued along the engineered track, where I took to a trodden line that would give me a slightly more direct route to my next objective.

My trod ended at the track, then was immediately picked up again on the other side, which led me nicely to the bagger's path, which in turn gave me easy passage to the top. It's only around 160 metres of height gain from the track to the top, and less than a kilometre of distance, making me somewhat kick myself that I bypassed it when it had been on my TGOC Route Sheet in 2019 (the valve in my Thermarest had become suddenly detatched at something like 3 o'clock that morning, instantly placing me on the cold ground, so I was rushing to get to Tarfside so I could attempt a fix in good time for the glue to go off before bedtime). That said, it had also been in cloud that day, and it would have been a shame to have missed the view back over to Lochnagar, which really is something impressive.

I'm not sure this snap does any sort of justice to the reality of the view

I visited three of the tors atop this hill, as even though the high point appeared clear, I wanted to be sure I wasn't mistaken. I then noticed that Casteal na Cailich, about 1km to the north, was only 3m lower and considered wandering over there just by way of insurance. I opted against, and as there has been a survey on this hill I think I'm reasonably safe against the summit being moved.

Whilst I'd been wandering around, Mick had phoned and asked me to look for his glove on my way back. By the time he'd realised it was missing, it was 2km since he knew he'd last had it, so it was a bonus that i was sweeping his route and saving him the backtrack.

Thus, instead of taking a more direct line, I descended to where Mick's route from Lochnagar had come out and thought I'd just take a little glance back along that path. I didn't have to go that far, as under a rock in the cairn that marks the junction (immediately opposite the path I'd come down) was the glove. That saved me an extended period of scanning the ground as I walked!

I then just had a straightforward 5k along the track to get back to Bertie. Somewhere along there the very light snow, that had been falling more often than not since half way down from Lochnagar, became more determined and slightly more sleety, but it never came too much for my windshirt to cope with, so no waterproofs faff was called for.

A really excellent day out!