Crossing the Cairngorms

We’ve been wanting to do this for a long time: crossing the Cairngorms mountains.

We’ve tried it before, but bad weather, and being ill-prepared for river crossings hindered us from achieving this goal. This time, we were successful and it’s actually still hard to believe - I didn’t think we were going to make it.

The weather was in our favour - it didn’t rain too much, there was the occasional hail and quite a bit of snowing on the ridge, but most importantly, very little wind.

We left for Aviemore right after work. We camped near the entrance of the mighty Lairig Ghru, an immense mountain pass whichs leads to the heart of the Cairngorms. Lairig Ghru - even the name is menacing, and its origins are an enigma. To me, it sounds like a sinister place in Mordor, from Lord of the Rings.

On the ridge, there was a lot of snow - 20, 30 centimeters at places. This was the first of May and we didn’t expect that much snow. It was nice, calm and with almost no wind at all.

The walk on the ridge was arduous but rewarding. We’ve met some people taking advantage of the snow - skiers, hikers, runners. The walk was otherworldly, especially when on your left is a deep precipice, and to your right is a seemingly endless sea of rocks and snow.

We avoided the evil Cairn Toul, a nasty peak surrounded by huge boulders. We just skirted it to get to the next peak. The descent was relatively safe although at one point Eszter employed a not 100% voluntarily initiated, but totally controlled glissade. It was fun.

We walked and walked, frequently discussing various imaginary meals we would have if we were back in civilisation. These included chocolate cake topped with custard, pizza, fried onion rings, ice cream, potato chips and spaghetti meatballs - the usual things a starving person thinks of. Mental images sprung up: the touch of dry, fresh pyjamas while playing a video game in a warm, waterproof apartment - the little things we appreciate more after such a trip.

At around 9.30 PM, we caught a glance of White Bridge, our goal for the day - we could hardly believe we made it there. We were exhilarated. We pitched the tent, ate a super quick and light supper (lentils with some soup and tortillas) and went to sleep. 13 hours of strenuous walking made falling asleep really easy.

The next day was less eventful but more heavily testing our endurance and patience. Wet feet, tired and aching joints in our legs and shoulders, and a lot of ground to cover.

We resorted to 100 mg of caffeine to boost our strength on the last leg of the trip. This helped with our speed and alleviated some pain as well in our feet. We made it back to Blair Atholl just in time to catch the one and only bus that day, which brought us back to Perth. We could not be more grateful and happy.