Again it is a situation of Good or Bad...!

The only let down with Glas Maol is that it suffers alot of the same problems as its opposite summit The Cairnwell

This is the highest Munro within this area but the easiest route to access it takes you passed the lifting rooms and machine buildings along with the lifts and access tracks to the ski centre...!

One thing is though unlike The Cairnwell once you have passed this man made mess the access from there onto the summit is an easy and very pleasent route up via the obvious ridge ahead and then on to the large round dome of Glas Maol's summit.
The difference is no radio towers or ski lifts all the way to the summit like The Cairnwell has.

The route starts from the the car parking by the snow gates at the top of the A93 pass between Spittal of Glen Shee and Braemar.

(Streetmap) Start Point for Parking

You head up the track from the car park through the ski centre to the ridge.

The ridge starts from the Munro Top (Not a Munro) called Meall Odhar at 922m.

(Streetmap) Meall Odhar

Then from Meall Odhar you follow the ridge right up and out onto the big open and round summit of Glas Maol at 1068m.

(Streetmap) Glas Maol

The streetmap links are an easy step by step route up.

Here is a copy of 1:50.000 map of the area

IMAGE-1:50.000 OS-MAP

Satelite Munro Summits
Glas Maol has a good number of satelite Munro summits to add into a days Munro bagging.

Glas Maol the summit trig point and wind shelter

Table of Satelite Munro summits

SUMMIT - TOP	HEIGHT	STATUS	NGR
Glas Maol	1068m	Munro	NO166765
Creag Leacach	987m	Munro	NO154745
Carn an Tuirc	1019m	Munro	NO174804
Cairn of Claise	1064m	Munro	NO185788
Tolmount	958m	Munro	NO210800
Tom Buidhe	957m	Munro	NO213787

Views of other summits seen from the summit of Glas Maol.
Some of these are also on my Summits from Summits album

Getting There

(WARNING) As with The Cairnwell there is only one road in and out of this area.

The main A93.
This road links Perth and Aberdeen.
From Aberdeen you head west off the main A90 bypass through to Braemar via Banchory, Ballater then Braemar where you head south up through Glen Clunie to the ski centres and associated parking areas to access the summit from.
From Perth you head north from the city centre through to Blairgowrie and Spittal of Glenshee then north again up through Glenshee to the ski centres and associated parking areas to access the summit from.
When heading up from Glenshee the main Glas Maol summit is not clearly visible as its southern neighbour Creag Leacach dominates the view.
In the worst weather cases the A93 can be impossible to pass as they close the snow gates at Spittal of Glenshee and Braemar. This does not happen very often as the Scottish road maintenance teams do a good job of trying to keep there traffic flowing.
As stated though this is the only road to access this summit…
Nearest train stations are Perth and Aberdeen.
Nearest airports are Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Red Tape

No access issues here.

Routes up can be direct from the car par park or follow the ski centre slopes and lifts to the top.

Free to roam applies here.

Camping / Bed and Breakfasts

Accommodation is available in the following towns that are all based along the A93.
Blairgowrie, Braemar, Ballater, Aboyne and Banchory.
These towns are all lovely places to stay for bed and breakfast and all have pubs for grub and drinks.
Camping is available along the valleys on open verges next to the main roads and out on the summits. Respect the country take all your litter home and don’t have fires…!

Weather and External Links

The weather here if doing just Glas Maol should not if you are prepared for it have any problems as getting off the summit is relatively easy via the ski centre slopes and lifts.
Also being as close to the road it is not the sort of summit to get lost on.

But if you are combining its satelite summits as listed above then it can be a different matter. This is because these all have great round and open summits that in mist and low cloud can make getting lost easier and being isolated from here care is to be taken. Plan your route and be prepared for changes in the weather of all sorts.

Plenty of Glas Maol information is available from this page and lots more about the area deeper within the web-site.

Munromagic Glas Maol

Weather forecasts are available from the above and below links

BBC 5-Day weather (Braemar)

BBC 5-Day weather (Blairgowrie)

These are the two nearest towns that the BBC 5-Day forecast covers.
They are not far from this summit so it is relatively accurate.

Glen Shee Ski Centre

Skiing in and around the Glen Shee Mountains

Every Winter when the snow falls the ski centre is here for all of you who are into your extreme winter sports.

There are many ski runs here on the surrounding Summits.

More Information is Available via this link:-

www.ski-glenshee.co.uk

Glenshee Ski Centre offers the UK's most extensive skiing and snowboarding facilities - we hope you will enjoy our mountains of adventure.
Glenshee - adventure in the making!

Glenshee's impressive 21 lifts and 36 runs offer an amazing diversity of natural terrain for all standards of skiers and snowboarders.

There are lots of options to choose from - you can join a class, go private, hire an instructor for your group, get into race training or simply take advantage of one of our great value package deals.

And of course when in your spare time take a great stroll up onto the surrounding Munro Summits and take in the scenery of Scotland at its best when it is in the snow...
Just look at this album to see what i mean.
Scotland Under Snow by Nanuls

Area showing some of the ski slopes

Area after a downfall of snow... Wonderful

Images



[ View Gallery - 4 More Images ]