I headed to Glen Muick, accessed along a single track road from the B976 South Deeside Road, south of Ballater, and parked near the south end of the forest beside the Allt an Uisge. I walked up the vehicle track at the side of the trees and to a communications tower. The track then continued onto Drum Cholzie where sections of the track were covered in snow.
I visited its summit then initially continued south before crossing some peat hags and snow patches to the south of Rough Craig. A suitable crossing point of the Allt Cholzie was found to avoid the large banks of snow then it was a steady climb to the summit of the Graham Top, Creag Dearg.
After a short break here I descended north-west across some snow patches and at times following vehicle tracks. Once over an old stone dyke I attempted but failed to get across the Allt Cholzie as it was running fairly high due to snow melt. I therefore wandered down the side of the stream later finding a suitable point to cross dry shod and climbed to the col south of Auchnacriag Hill. I then walked through some long heather to reach the vehicle track used earlier in the day at a point just south of the communications tower and followed the track back to the start.
- Time taken – 4.5 hours.
- Distance – 10.25 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 550 metres.