 When we woke up in the morning we thought this day might be lost for what we had planned: Dense sea-mist (or haar as it is called in Scotland) reduced visibility significantly. Not the best weather for a visit to Cairn Gorm Mountain. But we were in luck: As soon as we had passed Inverness and were on our way to Aviemore it started to clear. After a quick shopping stop in Aviemore we drove up to the base station at Coire Cas. Here we split up: My mother took the Funicular to the Ptarmigan while I started to walk up to Cairn Gorm. |
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 My walk started with the steep path leading up to the Ptarmigan. I could see the rail of the Funicular on my right for most of the time, looking over to Cairn Gorm, my destination. After about 30 minutes I arrived at the Ptarmigan, where I met my mother who had watched my walking up. Quite strict rules apply to protect the environment: |
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Funicular passengers are not allowed to leave the Ptarmigan building and viewing terrace, while walkers are not allowed to use the Funicular for their return journey. So I left my mother to enjoy the view from the viewing terrace to continue my walk. Following the path to the summit of Cairn Gorm I had an excellent view north over the Ptarmigan and Loch Morlich:
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 Soon I arrived at the highest point of this holiday: The summit of Cairn Gorm at 1245m with the large cairn (and a quite ugly weather station). Continuing south west I walked down again. The views were amazing, although difficult to capture in pictures. The best way to show them is probably in panoramas, I've prepared two QuickTime VR panoramas: |
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