A good journey overnight up to Scotland but a long one, over 600 miles. Breakfast in Aviemore and then straight to Cairngorm which is further from Aviemore than I thought. Carpark virtually empty because to our surprise the chairlift was closed on Fridays and Saturdays. At 650 metres in the car park you feel there is hardly a climb and the view up the middle through the ski slopes looks easy and tacky. However you still actually have to climb another 600 metres to the top which is more than most English mountains so it's not that easy. To make it a bit more interesting we decided to move off left onto the ridge called Sron an Aonaich. Still quite easy though with a path most of the way up steadily and without problem to the Ptarmigan restaurant. This was closed and looked as if it was shut for the winter. From here to the summit is an unusual path. At first it is a stone step made path with roped railings to keep everyone on the path and prevent further erosion. It still would be quite a stiff climb for tourists especially if they didn't have proper shoes. Gradually the path turns into a long line of cairns. Not sure if this is for erosion purposes or if they are markers for times of poor visibility but they lead right to the summit cairn. No people at all at this point, which I suspect must be unusual so Guinness and Fosters in peace. Like the Cairnwell it was quite windy and
also had a pylon contraption, a weather station. The views were a bit misty but you could get an idea of the plateau behind us.
Again for the sake of variety we moved over to the other ridge to go down and make a horseshoe trip. In a dip before gaining the ridge we met our first other people, a group of five or six coming up from the road. Hard to believe but there is a road (actually a track but not far removed from a road) leading round the summit and ends surely no more than a couple of hundred metres from the summit. We felt guilty walking up on the ridge from the car park but walking up a road almost to the summit is really not on. Going down the ridge we held to it the whole way down, the alternative being to move into Coire Cas and through all the ski run fences, chairlifts, etc. I have to admit I didn't get the same awful feeling I had in Glen Shee, as the slopes didn't look as horrible as in that area, though I'm sure it is. A few more cars in the car park where we had some rolls Eileen had made, then off to Fort William.
