Or at least in the top ten. Our favourite Scottish walk, redone after 12 years, a Cairngorm romp of 12plus miles and 4200 ft ascent. Starts high up, at the top Ski car park, and heads initially west from the top right end, past some Cloudberries (May, shy flowerers in England), then head for the obvious long ridge heading just to the right of the northern corries crags (Maidan Creag an Lech-choin). Head for Ben Macdui on an easy path with fabulous views across the Lairig Ghru to the Braeriach/Cairn Toul Corrie, then head ESE to find a path heading E to a low col and down the side of a valley leading to Loch Etchachan, the 5 miles or so from the Ben being utterly sublime, around Etchachan, steeply down to the grand head of Loch Avon (“A’an”) with its huge boulders – try to spot the tiny entrance to a bivy spot under the Shelter Stone, then either across the burn, boots off, or head to the Loch where stepping stones obviate that need. We had previously ascended diagonally from here into the Coire Raibert defile, and onto Cairngorm, but as memory told of erosion, we pressed on by the Loch, a rough outing, and upto the Saddle. From here an initially obvious path leads diagonally up via Ciste Mhearad to descend to the Ptarmigan station, where we have previously obtained refreshments: too late this time, 4.30. This path is difficult to follow higher up and there may well be a sizable snow dump in the Ciste. We would stick to Coire Raibert next time, although the path from the Saddle was delightfully awash with the tiny mountain azaleas.(the map below shows the Coire Raibert route). The path just W of N leads pleasantly down the ridge from the Station, curving W to drop steeply to the car park. Took us eight and a half hours, but you without grandparents joints will be faster. When asked about my favourite Munro, Cairngorm is high up there, as the areas around Loch Avon, the northern corries, and the long northern ridge finishing at the Green Loch all belong to the mountain, only a relatively small sector has been devastated by ugly ski paraphernalia.
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