The Cairnwell Munros (Cairn Aodsa, Càrn a' Ghèoidh and The Cairnwell)

The three that were almost zero, that was almost 2, that was almost 4, but were actually 3... ?

The plan had been to wake up at 4am and hike the fist munro (Cairn Aosda) for sunrise, however it was still chucking it down with rain (it had been all night) so we scrapped that plan and went back to sleep. When woke up again it was to find our pitch was flooded with water and our tent was functioning as a kind of waterbed... thank goodness for Vango's waterproofing!! We packed up the tent and ate some cereal bars in the car before setting off to the start point for the munros. 

When we got to the start (the Glenshee Ski Centre) we actually decided we weren't going to do the munros. It was raining and the cloud was so thick that we could barely see a few m infront of us. Not ideal conditions! There is no signal as the ski centre, so we drove a bit further down the road to a layby with signal to plan what we should do. With no other munros in the area that we hadnt already climbed, it would either be a case of just getting the munros done, or heading home and leaving them for another day. We decided we'd go back up the hill to the ski centre, see if the cloud had cleared at all and if not, head home. Thankfully when we got to the car park for the second time we could actually make out some of the munros! So we bought our parking ticket (3 pounds for the day) and set off! 

Its quite odd walking up Cairn Aodsa... you're following a path through the ski routes that is very defined and it didnt feel like a mountain at all. After half an hour of uphill walking you're at the top! On a clear day you'd be able to see the Glas Maol munros on the other side of the valley but we just had a view of cloud. There was another couple at the top who took a photo of us and asked us about the navigation tool we were using when I pulled up Maps.me to see which path to take. We told them about it then headed off to number 2. 

Here's where I made my mistake...

Its quite a nice walk round the back of the mountain tops with no real inclines or descents. We were able to keep up quite a fast pace and were on track to beat our target for the walk (sub 3 hours). I had us heading for what I thought was the 2nd munro in the group, Càrn nan Sac. We did a little loop to bag it and then started heading back the way we came towards our 3rd munro, The Cairnwell. It was here that we bumped into the couple from earlier again and i'm SO glad we did! If we hadn't, this would have been a 2 munro hike! The couple were shocked when we had said that we had just completed number 2. I was a little confused considering the summit was only about 500m away so they pulled out Maps.me and showed us that there was actually another munro a further 2 kms away to bag, Càrn a' Ghèoidh! 

I was buzzing, what I thought was going to be a 3 munro hike in 3 hours was going to become a 4 munro hike!!

Well... 

On the way to Càrn a' Ghèoidh I did a bit of googling and found out that Càrn nan Sac is actually a munro top (but not classified as a munro itself) and that the half an hour loop we had done to bag it was just extra! Slightly deflated that our 4 munros were back down to 3, we continued our walk to Càrn a' Ghèoidh along a relatively flat path across the mountain tops. Just before reaching the summit we both had to crack out our water proofs as the weather started to turn. 

Once Càrn a' Ghèoidh was bagged, we started the walk back towards Glenshee Ski Centre so that we could climb the final munro, The Cairnwell. 

This probably felt like the closest to a mountain of the 3 although that could have been because we were walking headfirst into very strong winds with pouring rain!! The top of The Cairnwell is marked by a large phone tower and little bothy/hut. I think the views would have been great on a clear day! 

To get back down we decided to just head straight down the side of the mountain, following the ski path under the chair lift. There were a few slippy bits but a few others must have done the same as us since there is a faint path to follow. Back at the car we made some coffees and changed our wet clothes (Stephen managed to expose himself to a poor passerby) then we set off back home. 

And did we make our goal of 3hours even with the whole Càrn nan Sac detour? 

We sure did!! Back with a whole 59 seconds to spare!

Walk stats: 

Distance - 12.20km

Time - 2:59:01 

Elevation - 691m 

You can view the Walk Highlands route here