Glas Maol – Over Meall Odhar by the Ski Tows

The walk

The usual way up Glas Maol starts at the Glenshee ski centre on the A93. It climbs the ski area's tracks beside the tows to Meall Odhar, then a broad shoulder to the summit plateau. By our map it is about 6.5 km (4 miles) there and back, with about 450 metres of climb. Allow about 2.5 to 3.5 hours, more with stops, in poor weather or under snow. The summit is 1,068 metres up, and the walk starts about 670 metres up. The way is on stony tracks through a ski area, among tows, pistes and snow fences, then on grass paths, faint in places, over open hill. No public body publishes this way up, a distance or a time for it. Some walkers start instead from the car park south of the Devil's Elbow. Many go on to Creag Leacach, about 2.5 km to the south-west, or to Cairn of Claise, about 3 km to the north-east: this walk keeps to Glas Maol.

Glenshee Snowsports Centre's car park is on the A93 at the Cairnwell Pass, between the Spittal of Glenshee and Braemar. Its sat nav postcode is AB35 5XU. The centre's page says parking is free for the first 50 minutes or with a chairlift ticket, then £4 for the day. Pay by the QR code on its parking notices, or at its café, Tea@TheShee. The centre has toilets and washrooms by its buildings, across the A93 from the car park. It also names free parking at the car park south of the Devil's Elbow, about a mile to the south. The centre says Ember's buses run daily to the ski centre from Dundee and Aberdeen: check the timetable before you rely on one. The councils work snow gates on the A93 at the Spittal of Glenshee and at Braemar.

Before you set off, check the mountain forecast, and under snow the avalanche forecast too. Read the Mountain Weather Information Service's Southeastern Highlands forecast with its Cairngorms one. Carry a map and compass and know how to use them: Tayside Mountain Rescue Team warns never to rely on a phone or GPS alone. The ski centre asks walkers to have a backup means of navigation with them at all times. Walking can be dangerous, it says, and all walkers must take responsibility for their own safety. Deer stalking can take place all year, the park authority says, most of all in October for stags and in January and early February for hinds. Find out before you go.

From the south end of the car park, the ski area's main track climbs east through the ski area, steeply at first. It is gravel and stones, one guide says, very steep from the car park and more treacherous on the way down. Several side tracks leave it: keep to the main track as it bends up the slope. By our map it passes the tows of Sunnyside, then bends back and forth across the line of the Caenlochan Poma, about 1.2 km out. Pistes and snow fences run close beside it, some within a few metres. About 900 metres out it passes about 100 metres from the centre's Meall Odhar Café and toilets at Sunnyside: do not count on them being open.

About 1.4 km out, about 815 metres up by our map, the main track ends. A shorter track climbs on to the top of the last tows below Meall Odhar, about 1.7 km out and about 880 metres up. From there a grass path crosses the top of Meall Odhar, 922 metres, a top of Glas Maol, about 1.9 km out. Beyond it the path drops a little to a dip below Glas Maol, where it turns faint on the ground. By our map two paths leave it on the right below the shoulder, one towards Creag Leacach and one down towards the Devil's Elbow. Keep on, south-east, up the shoulder.

From the dip the path climbs south-east up Glas Maol's broad north-west shoulder. This is the steepest of the climb, steep and stony, one guide says: by our map it rises about 45 metres in 100 metres at its steepest, about 2.5 km out. Munro Magic warns of crags within a kilometre of the summit, and of steep crags west of Glas Maol. By our map crags and scree fall into the corrie on the left, about 50 metres from the path. Keep to the path, and well back from the edge.

The slope eases onto the summit plateau, broad and flat. By our map the path crosses into Angus about 380 metres from the top: the summit is divided between Aberdeenshire, Angus and Perth and Kinross, and its highest point, in Angus, is that council area's highest ground. The summit, 1,068 metres up and about 3.3 km out by our map, is a big cairn round a trig pillar. The bulk of the dome hides some of the view, one guide says. Behind the summit, in the ski centre's words, the plateau runs out towards Lochnagar.

The plateau has no paths or landmarks, one guide warns, and in poor visibility it needs care. The ground between Glas Maol and its neighbours is broad and featureless, another says, and in cloud walkers drift off line without knowing it. Following paths on open ground without a compass may get you lost in poor visibility, Munro Magic says. Four ridges meet at the summit. Before you leave it, take a bearing north-west for the shoulder and Meall Odhar. If the cloud comes down, the wind rises or anyone is tiring, turn back by the way you came.

In the ski season the hill's western slopes are a working ski area. The centre asks walkers to keep outside its snow fences and managed areas. It asks them never to walk up a ski tow line, running or not. It warns of steel winching cables and of vehicles on the slopes, by day or night. No dogs are allowed on its runs and tows. The centre names a Glas Maol Route for walkers and ski tourers east of the A93, which may change when snow is lean or conditions poor: ask the hill staff or ski patrol. Outside the managed area, the centre says, all responsibility for safety is your own. Avalanche and weather forecasts are posted at the ski patrol and outside the ticket office.

Under snow Glas Maol is a winter mountain. The ski centre bans skiing and boarding in the Glas Maol bowl because of the risk of avalanches. Mountaineering Scotland tells of a walker caught by a slab avalanche after Christmas 2010 while cutting down a steep slope from Glas Maol towards the top of the pistes. Only an ice axe arrest stopped the slide. In winter the plateau can hold deep snow, cornices can hang over the steep slopes, and above 1,000 metres the wind chill is significant, one guide warns: crampons and an ice axe are likely to be needed. The Scottish Avalanche Information Service names the Cairnwell and Glas Maol ranges in its Southern Cairngorms area. Read that forecast before you go.

The way down is the way you came: north-west off the summit, down the shoulder to the dip and over Meall Odhar, then down the tracks through the ski area to the car park. Below the shoulder the paths to Creag Leacach and the Devil's Elbow leave on the left: keep on for Meall Odhar. Take great care on the gravel track down: it is treacherous. In an emergency call 999 or 112 and ask for Police and Mountain Rescue, Mountaineering Scotland says. Give a six-figure grid reference and a named feature if you can. To be able to text 999 where a call will not connect, register first by texting the word register to 999.