Braeriach

We had never been to Coire Ruadh and Coire an Lochain on the north side of Braeriach and all this late season snow and good weather seemed the ideal opportunity. It was supposed to brighten up on Sat pm as we headed across the plateau to the March Burn. The light did improve for our descent albeit steeper than I remember it. We found a handy campsite next to the Pools of Dee.

Sunday dawned bright. The overnight frost firmed up the snow for the direct ascent of Sron na Lairige. We enjoyed magnificent views from Braeriach before heading west past Coire an Lochain down the easy slope that is visible from Aviemore. The loch in the coire was still frozen. We reascended Braeriach by the ridge before Coire Ruadh and back round to Sron na Lairige and the now hardening up descent back to camp.

We were away early on Monday morning to catch the snow while still hard to reascend the March Burn. We were further left that need be and found this more difficult than expected. Nevertheless we had more wall to wall sunshine for the return across the plateau.

Useful overnight frosts and magnificent sunshine.

Secure with no crust. The Sron na Lairige descent was usefully left until about 6pm

Angus A and Alan S