Creag nan Gabhar day walk

With a consensus that the weather was looking better than expected 6 of us, Robert, Ian, Paddy, Linda , Ali, and Catherine, and 3 dogs, set out for Braemar and the Corbett Creag nan Gabhar. After pausing to view the impressive earth works dumped in the Dee to shore up Abergeldie castle after the new year floods we made our way to the start of the walk at Auchallater, where Anna joined us.

After a simple debate to leave the winter gear in the cars after a surprising lack of snow on the hills we followed the good landrover track up glen Callater and then branched off for the only steep bit of the day up Sron Dubh and continued on the easier broad ridge over Sron nan Gabbar.

Approaching the summit we entered the cloud and battled with the horizontal snow coming straight at us, the worst bit of weather for the day.

After a very brief stop at the summit we back tracked a short distance and headed down to Loch Callater. Despite losing Paddy temporarily on the way down we all made it to the bothy at the head of Loch Callater for lunch out of the wind where we gate crashed the peace of two Dundonian walkers that were also taking shelter in the bothy.

After lunch it was a simple walk back down the Glen to the cars. The weather had been much better than forecast and the snow covering a lot thinner than expected. The day was rounded off with well deserved tea and cakes at the expanded Bothy cafe in Braemar before heading back to Aberdeen.

Robert S

....with thanks to Paddy for photos