Lochnagar from Conachcraig

Starting from the Balmoral Estate, I headed up Glen Gelder in the early morning sun. There was snow at the road end, so I was suitably prepared for a proper winter mountain day. After an hour or so I passed by the bothy at Gelder Shiel, with a MBA workparty hard at work inside.

The track I was following petered out at 550m altitude and I made up a wandering route through the heather and wet snow into the clouds at 900m. The climb to the summit of Cac Carn Beag was a bit of a slog through a snowy boulderfield with lots of post-holing up to my knees and waist.

The cloud persisted as I followed the cliff edge south-east and I passed serveral groups of walkers ascending from the usual tourist route from Loch Muick. A slippy descent to the col below Conachcraig and then a laboured ascent to the summit. Corbett number 110...