Ladder Hills

Carn Mor summit

The ridge to Carn Mor

Eastern Cairngorms from Carn Mor

Trying to lose my shadow on Carn Mor

and failing - Ben Rinnes and Corryhabbie Hill from Carn Mor

Carn Mor from Carn Liath

Walking to the Lecht from Carn Liath

Lecht Ski Centre

Osprey Tow, the Lecht

Carn Ealasaid from Carn Mhic an Toisich

Summit, yes that's right, of Carn Ealasaid

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Ascent:    750 metres

Distance:  20 kilometres

Time:        5 hours 5minutes

Carn Mor            804m     1hr 25mins  

Carn Ealasaid      792m    4hrs  3mins

Day 2 of the Moray Corbetts began with a proper breakfast in the B&B.  The sun had returned with vengeance but without the accompanying wind of yesterday. We drove a dozen miles from Auchbreck in Glenlivet to Tomintoul and then south along the infamous A939 towards Cockbridge and parked by the 'Well of the Lecht' corner. The track to the former iron and manganese mine was frozen hard and when it became an impassable frozen pool we took an old hill path to an illicit whisky still. The path was a stream of sheet ice but fronds of heather and mashed peat from previous footprints made it passable. It climbs steadily to the Carn Dulack ridge by which time we had emerged from the morning shadow into the sunlight  Reaching the ridge opened up tremendous vistas and we followed the ridge as it curved round to Carn Liath. As we reached a fence the short grass gave way to the heather slopes that were deep and difficult to negotiate. We headed to the bealach between Carn Liath and Carn Mor, it was a maze of peat hags that we dodged our way through.

I had stuffed the map in my rucksack as visibility was perfect and assumed the 799m top ahead was Carn Mor, it was about the right altitude for Carn Mor according to my altimeter. Mark continued over the edge of the plateau, at first I presumed he was taking a few photos but he then continued another kilometre to the real summit of Carn Mor. Meanwhile, I was lolling on the tiny cairn on the 799m top eating a sandwich and enjoying the still winter conditions. Fortunately, the route across to the real summit was easy walking over a thin layer of snow and it took little time to reach the summit. We looked across at the views of our hills of yesterday, Corryhabbie Hill and Ben Rinnes and realised that we had been blessed with the very best of conditions for the ascent of these wicked heather-clad hills. 

The route back to the Lecht ski centre was a roller coaster over the Ladder hills with three intervening tops, it was a long and hard six kilometres of hacking our way through snow-coated heather. The ski centre was closed but we took the opportunity to have a quick lunch break before the sun sank behind the hills and then began the steep climb up the heather covered piste next to the ski tows. It is not a big climb (150m) but it was a relief to reach Carn Mhic an Toisich. We looked askance at the tricky route across to Carn Ealasaid. The heather was partly covered by snow but there were 800 metres of peat hags to cross before the final climb. There were lots of new animal tracks following the narrow path tracing its way through the heather, the snow was only a day old, and it looked as if the hares were being tracked by foxes.

The summit of Carn Ealasaid is about as flat and pointless as they come and the descent was not much better - a long traverse to the north of Beinn a' Chruinnich and then a leg sapping descent down 200 metres of deep heather to hit the road at the Bridge of Leachd. The car was frozen up and the temperature was well below freezing even at 3:30pm, we changed and began the long journey home via Cock Bridge, Balmoral, Braemar and Glenshee. Sadly it was too dark to see any of the scenery in its winter finery but at least it was not the A9.