Seasons
any time from November until April, and in exceptional years, as early as October or as late as June!
Centres
Aviemore and Strathspey in the north and Braemar and Deeside for the south and central areas; Creag Meagaidh is accessible Speyside and also from Fort William and the west.
Difficulty
a wide range of routes and difficulty from straightforward climbs to some of exceptional difficulty; from single pitches to over 250m in length and from easily accessible to extremely remote but requiring a solid mountaineering background.
Must See
main area covered is the Cairngorms, both north and south, granite peaks with extensive areas of high plateau and four peaks over 4,000 feet in high, offering superb winter climbing in a unique mountain environment.
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Overview
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This guide, now in a fully updated sixth edition, offers a selection of some of the best winter routes to be found in the Cairngorms and on Creag Meagaidh. The granite peaks of the Cairngorms have extensive areas of high plateau and four peaks of over 4000ft, while Creag Meagaidh is noted for its classic ice climbs. Well-known routes on Lochnagar are also covered here, as well as the more remote and serious climbs on Braeriach. With something to suit all winter climbers here in the heart of Scotland, the Cairngorms has it all. Routes are illustrated in 51 colour photo topos and include a wide range of grades, lengths and styles, from straightforward to exceptionally difficult. All routes require a solid mountaineering or climbing background.
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Table of Contents
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Getting to the Cairngorms
List of diagrams
Introduction
Conditions
Routes and grades
Route lengths
Recommended routes
Maps
Equipment
Avalanches
Mountain rescue
Cairngorms North
Overview map
Coire an t-Sneachda
The Mess of Pottage
Aladdin’s Buttress
Fluted Buttress
Fiacaill Buttress
Coire an Lochain
Number 1 Buttress
Number 2 Buttress
Number 3 Buttress
Number 4 Buttress
Lurcher’s Crag (Creag an Leth-Choin)
Sron na Lairige
Carn Etchachan
The Lower Cliff, Main Face
The Upper Cliff, Main Face
The Gully Face
Shelter Stone Crag
Garbh Uisge Crag
Hell’s Lum Crag
Stag Rocks
Left-hand Section
Right-hand Section
Stac an Fharaidh
East Flank
West Flank
The Cairntoul/Braeriach Amphitheatre
Angel’s Peak
Corrie of the Chokestone Gully
Garbh Choire Mor
Garbh Choire Dhaidh
Coire Bhrochain
Coire an Lochain
The Corries of Beinn a’Bhuird
Coire na Ciche
Coire an Dubh Lochain
Garbh Choire
Coire Sputan Dearg
Grey Man’s Crag Area
Snake Ridge Area
The Central Buttresses
Creagan a’Choire Etchachan
Cairngorms South
Overview map
Lochnagar
The Southern Sector
Perseverance Wall
The Cathedral
The Northern Sector
Central and Shadow Buttress Group
Eagle Ridge and the Parallel Buttress Group
Black Spout Pinnacle
West Buttress Group
Creag an Dubh Loch
Eagles Rocks
Mid-West Buttress
Mid-East Buttress
Broad Cairn Bluffs
Glen Clova
Winter Corrie
Corrie Fee
Creag Meagaidh
Overview map
Creag Meagaidh
Girdle Traverse
Bellevue Buttress
Raeburn’s Gully Buttress
Pinnacle Buttress
The Post Face
The Inner Corrie
Appendix A Index of Routes: Cairngorms North
Appendix B Index of Routes: Cairngorms South
Appendix C Index of Routes: Creag Meagaidh
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Maps
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The climbing areas described in this guide are covered by a range of maps in the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series. The Lochnagar/Creag an Dubh Loch area is covered by Sheet 44, entitled Ballater & Glen Clova; the Cairngorm area is covered by Sheet 36, Grantown & Aviemore. Part of the area is also on Sheet 43, Braemar & Blair Atholl.
The OS Explorer maps at 1:25,000 scale also cover the area. Use Sheet 403, Cairngorm & Aviemore, for the Central and Northern Cairngorms; Sheet 404, Braemar, Tomintoul, Glen Avon, for Beinn a Bhuird; and Sheet 388, Lochnagar, Glen Muick & Glen Clova, for Lochnagar, Creag an Dubh Loch and Glen Clova.
Creag Meagaidh is covered by Landranger Sheet 34, Fort Augustus; Sheet 42, Glen Garry & Loch Rannoch; and Explorer Sheet 401, Loch Laggan & Creag Meagaidh. Harvey
Maps produce the 1:25,000 Superwalker series maps. Three of these – The Cairngorms, Ben Avon and Lochnagar – cover most of the crags in this guidebook. Harvey also produce a series of 1:40,000 Mountain Maps, of which The Cairngorms and Lochnagar sheet covers most of the area.
The ability to use a map and compass correctly is essential for all winter mountaineers and climbers.
GPS systems can provide a useful back-up to more traditional map and compass skills, and it is recommended that they are used in this way, rather than as the sole navigational aid. Walking on the bearing obtained from a traditional compass will nearly always be steadier than following that from its satellite-driven GPS cousin. The location of the foot of some routes is given by a bearing from a prominent feature for some crags to aid their location in poor visibility.
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Updates
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We do not yet have any updates available for this book
We are always grateful to readers for information about any discrepancies between a
guidebook and the facts on the ground. If you would like to send some information
to us then please use our contact form. They
will be published here following review by the author(s).
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Reviews
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It is a very attractive book, bright and clear and well laid out.
I have a battered copy of the second edition of this popular guidebook on my bookshelf. It is over 30 years old (the staples are rusting) and was written by one of the world’s greatest ice climbing pioneers – John Cunningham. I have certain fondness for this little paperback guide for not only was it my first Scottish guidebook, but it also conjures up memories of woollen breeches, straight shafted ice axes and bendy Salewa crampons in an age when Grade V really meant something.
The new fifth edition, written by the father and son team of Allen and Blair Fyfe includes Creag Meagaidh as well as the Cairngorms, and reflects the change in emphasis of Scottish winter climbing from ice to mixed over the past three decades. It is a very attractive book, bright and clear and well laid out. It is illustrated with excellent crag topos (some such as Perseverance Wall and The Cathedral on Lochnagar have never been published before), and a series of superb action photos by Henning Wackerhage. Henning is the only climber I know who carries a full size DSLR with him on every route, and his resulting images are both beautiful and evocative, and just make you want to get out and go climbing.
Unlike its sister Cicerone volume (Ben Nevis and Glen Coe) that sets out to be comprehensive, Cairngorms and Creag Meagaidh is a selected guide. I feel this is wholly appropriate, because unlike the SMC definitive guidebooks that have to be fully comprehensive by definition, a selected guidebook can be more creative and point newcomers to the better cliffs and corries, and highlight not just the finest, but also the most do-able routes.
In this regard, Allen and Blair have done a superb job, especially in the Northern Cairngorms. The route choice is imaginative, and includes several recently developed cliffs such as Lurcher’s Crag and Sron na Lairige. Allen is also author of the Northern Cairngorms section of the SMC guide, knows his subject well and writes with authority. If I had to make a single criticism, it would be that the route selection in the Southern Cairngorms is a little predictable. Sure, you have to include the great Lochnagar classics, but in the main, the selection appears to be fairly conservative. For example, including a selection of routes on The Stuic, which contains some of the most enjoyable short middle grade routes in the Cairngorms, would have been a useful addition.
Overall this is a great little guidebook and a natural complement to the SMC title. A newcomer to the area may well be attracted to this new Cicerone guide, but the aficionado will probably always be drawn the SMC fully comprehensive volume (I would say this of course, because I am one of the authors). However, I suspect that even the most hardened Cairngorm climber will also appreciate the Cicerone book for its different perspective and excellent diagrams and illustrations.
Simon Richardson, Scottish Winter
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