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Lochnagar & Loch Muick

Photos taken: July 16th

A late start, as seems to be the usual these days. The start, the car park at Glen Muick, just South of Ballater, approx 1hour or so drive from Aberdeen. It's a pleasant drive up, and once you hit Ballater just head South over the old bridge (taking a right at the T junction), followed by a first left - clearly signposted Loch Muick. 10-15mins later you'll arrive at the car park (which costs £2 - which is fairly reasonable)

Lochnagar was a new mountain for me. It consists of three peaks over 3,000 feet - making the highest point Cac Carn Beag at 3786ft the highest point I'd ever been too in Scotland. From the car park, take the track headed roughly west. It starts fairly gently with around 1km or so on the flat, before gently climbing through woodland.

After around 40mins you emerge from the forest, quite some height up. Above is the view looking back down, South-East

This is from the same place, but shows the path heading up towards the mountains. The valley between the two peaks is what we are aiming for.

After just over an hour in, having reached the valley between those two peaks, I find myself looking down on the above two panoramas. The first is the view South, while the second is due West, towards the Cairngorms.

Shortly after Lochnagar comes into full view.

Between taking the first shot almost up the top and looking back down the corrie, and upon reaching the summit, the Scottish cloud came down, and there was very little to see. Having climbed all he way up however, I still felt obliged to take this shot.

Our descent took us over another couple of munros and peaks, this being the view from the last - Broad Cairn.

Before we headed back down towards Loch Muick, and home! Managed the extensive round trip in around 7 hours, covering some 19miles, and probably bagging around five summits over 3000feet along the way (though im unsure how many are officially classed as munros).

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