TRIP REPORT Shelter from the storm

SOMETIMES trips don’t go quite according to plan. Such was the case with my first spring trip this year.

Wanting to avoid the snow that still lay on the highest tops I went to the little frequented pathless country between Gleann Einich and the Lairig Ghru in the Cairngorms that lies to the north of Braeriach and is mostly between 600 and 700 metres high.

There was a strong breeze even down in the forest when I set off for Gleann Einich. Once I left the last trees the wind was fierce, roaring down the glen. Dark ragged clouds ripped across the mountains. Once I turned off the track the going became tough, all tussocks and bogs. The wind was strong enough to knock me sideways occasionally. It blasted across my prospective campsite at around 700 metres, so I headed for a nearby shallow glen hoping for some shelter.

There wasn’t any. Still battered by the wind I descended into the narrower lower glen. The terrain became stony, scoured by floods and snowmelt. The banks either side grew steeper. I decided I should climb up to the moorland above. The scramble up steep slopes of heather and rock was hard work.

Once up on flatter ground the wind hit me hard. I realised to camp anywhere sheltered I would have to go down again to the Allt Druidh, which drains the north side of the Lairig Ghru. The descent was via even rougher slopes than those I’d just climbed, with big boulders hidden in the heather.

Once down the terrain was no easier. The river was a torrent. The Lairig Ghru path lay not far up the other side but there was no way I could ford safely. I went downstream into the trees, searching for a campsite.

After climbing another steep, rough bank and descending again to avoid a crag I found