The bubble of heat was truly upon us by Tuesday, and even in the midst of the mountains it had been a very warm night. I planned, therefore, to set out for Bynack More early, hoping to finish the run before the Glens reached their forecast 35-degrees! The forecast was also for a bit of an oddity; a cloudless inversion, with the peaks of the Cairngorms basking in 29-degree heat early in the morning.
While I didn’t quite manage the early start, I was running towards the Ryvoan pass by 8am, and the air was warm but fairly dry, so it didn’t feel too bad at all. The route took me bast An Lochan Uaine (which I must return to! ed: he did) and out towards the old pass through the Lairig an Laoighe to the Braemar side of the plateau. The path was good track most of the way, and it’s well-engineered right up to a high fork, where the left path continues to the South while I took the right fork and started the final climb; the imposing pyramid of the two Bynacks ahead of me. I didn’t spot the path which would have taken me around to Bynack Beg, so headed straight up to the summit of Bynack More, initially climbing the wrong summit tor before spotting a cairn neatly built on another one; my 126th Munro, and the only one of the day. I then headed over to take in both the tors which are on the summit plateau itself, and to get a better view of the Barns of Bynack, which were about 100m down the hill side from me, looking out over the glen.
Around this point I decided against trying to add-on the Corbett on the other side of said glen; it was getting very warm already, and I was a little worried about my water supply, so restricted myself to the outlying tops of Bynack More instead. I first headed out to the grassy, dry bealach to A’ Choinneach, and stopped to rest at its cairn for around 20 minutes before heading back across, swerving off to the bealach joining Bynack More to Bynack Beg; the naming fitting as the former is considerably larger and higher than the latter. After climbing the tor of Beg I spotted the path I should have taken to get here from the route in, and headed back to the descent path along it.
When I reached the fork in the path I again had to persuade myself not to try to add the Corbett in, and then made good speed on the return, though my legs were definitely feeling the lack of long runs over the last couple of months. I got back to Glenmore, read for a while until the beach quietened down, and then went for a swim.