Wed 17th Dec 2008, Braeriach

For the next few days I am winter walking in the Cairngorms with Rick. The route to Braeriach is a long walk and we set off before sunrise to give us plenty of time. We followed the path from the bends on the ski road and quickly reached the Chalamain Gap just as sun was rising. We were treated to some fantastic early morning light on the hills around Sgor Gaoith before we descended into the Lairig Ghru and the long pull up to the summit.

We crossed a number of large snowfields before arriving on the top of Sron na Lairige by now the wind speed had increased considerably. As we crossed the summit Rick began to have problems with his leg muscles cramping and we decided to head back to the car although we were just short of the summit at this point. The strong winds and Ricks leg made this part of the journey increasing difficult and it took longer than we expected.

After we returned to the car we made a short visit the Avalanche service at Glenmore Lodge where we were abe to check the maximum wind speed recorded at the weather station on top of Cairngorm, during our time on the hills, as 101mph.