Roger's Walkabout : TGO Challenge 2025

Day 10 Cairn Toul to Cairngorm.

Another day of continuous sunshine with a northerly breeze to keep the temperature down. It was a perfect night in the tent as well, despite being 1000 meters high, no frost and no condensation.

Beinn Bhrotain

Rather than climb back to the ridge I decided to contour round to the path that drops to Corrour bothy and I'm very glad that I did because I came across a small herd of Reindeer on the high pasture.

A small herd of Reindeer

A steep descent to the bothy where there were a few people camping outside, accros the river and started walking up the Lairig Ghru.

Down to Corrour Bothy

I made a bad mistake then. My original plan had been to climb Ben Macdui by the Tailors Burn path which is extremely steep and quite difficult so I thought I could improve on that by making a rising traverse up the side of Carn a' Mhaim.

Bridge over the Dee below the Devils Point

It started well enough but it got steeper and the heather deeper until, with my legs thoroughly scoured (too hot for trousers), I thought it would be easier to ascend to the ridge by the rocks above.

Down to the Lairig Ghru

The whole thing could have been disastrous but I got to the bealach in the end, having taken twice as long and expended a least twice as much energy as I would have on the path, however it was 'interesting'.

Another view down

The climb through the boulders was simple, by contrast.

Looking across the boulders to Braerieach

There were a few people on the top but it is only the second highest peak so doesn't attract anything like the numbers Nevis does.

The top of Ben Macdui

It's a straightforward walk down and round to Cairngorm but the path is quite rocky in places especially the climb to the top.

View from Macdui

The plan was to carry on over the top of Cairngorm descending to Glen Aan but I rather liked the look of Coire Raibeirt as I passed so decided to backtrack from the top and find a camp spot in the Coire.