Every journey into the mountains is good for the soul and provides views that photos just don’t do justice. Even with this in mind, some trips provide experiences that make them more memorable than others. My journey up to The Hutchinson Memorial Hut Bothy set deep in The Cairngorms National Park was one such example. Full winter conditions were tackled with knee deep powder, blowing snow on an icy wind and a night in a truly stunning setting. The trip was epic in so many ways that I’ll remember it for a long time to come. What a trip it was!

Route Statistics

Distance: 13.17 km

Estimated duration of the walk ( in winter conditions ):4.5- 5 hours

Elevation Gain: 400.84 metres

The Journey To The Bothy- Part One

I had to include that subheading because they journey to The Hutchinson Memorial Hut Bothy really was a tale of two halves. This first section was without doubt the easiest part.

Myself and my mate Jack had spent the previous night at the nearby Red House Bothy and returned to the car first at The Linn of Dee car park. We had to pass this way anyway and it was great to be able to stock up on fresh food and wood for the fire later. It was cold enough lower down, so we knew it would be positively Baltic up in the high mountains where the bothy is located. It turns out we weren’t wrong!

The first leg of the hike takes you from the car park to Bob Scott’s Bothy. It covers a distance of three miles, but follows a good track, which only gently undulates along the way. The lower elevation also means that snow and ice is likely to be less of an issue than it may be later. This was certainly the case for us.

We were already in a winter wonderland with a thin coating of snow on the ground and the mountains all around wearing their winter coats. The blue sky we were blessed with just made it all the more stunning. A slate grey sky with the snow doesn’t quite have the same attraction.

Bob Scott’s Bothy was a good place to drop the weight from the back for a while. Where Jack had got to though I had no idea. An emergency toilet stop by myself had meant Jack had pressed on to the bothy, but he was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, he had only missed the left hand fork by a little bit and arrived a few minutes later. A tour of Bob Scott’s can be found below.

Leg Two- Bob Scotts To Hutchinson Memorial Hut Bothy

There is only around five miles between the two bothies, yet this leg of the journey will go down in the memory bank as being some of the most epic I’ve experienced. It started hard and just got harder and harder we climbed.

To begin with, Jack and I made our way through a scattered pine forest. The tracks on the ground were tricky to stick to with the many inches of snow now covering them. GPS is a wonderful thing though and thus we didn’t lose our way too much.

Things got really tough once the tree line was left behind. Not only was the deep snow really hard to negotiate, but the light was quickly fading. We only had a couple of miles to go, however progress was painfully slow. The weight of our camping gear plus fuel for the fire was far from ideal when you had no idea how deep each bit of snow was. Our walking poles soon not only helped keep us steady on our feet but were used as depth checkers too. Snow shoes would have been ideal even with my size 11’s and Jack’s 13’s.

To make matters worse, the weather changed very quickly indeed. Blue skies were replaced with thick clouds and driving snow, which was of course blowing straight into our faces. The video clip below shows what conditions were like for the last hour or so of the hike. My warm down jacket from Decathlon certainly came in handy that’s for sure!

A Passing Hiker Saves The Day

We’d both got pretty wet and nearly had quite a bad accident when crossing an icy stream. Wet rocks and frozen sections are a lethal mix it turns out. Our morale was falling by the minute, so it was by sheer chance and luck that we saw a light coming towards us in the distance. We headed towards each other and we soon found that the light belonged to a chap, who had been on the high mountains earlier in the day and had stopped by at The Hutchinson Memorial Hut. The fact that he’d made it gave us all the hope we needed in knowing that we’d get there too.

After wishing each other luck, Jack and I pressed on and made full use of the deep footsteps left behind by the solo explorer. It was incredible how much easier it made things, although it was still far from easy. We found ourselves falling over several times, which was exhausting. I don’t think either of us have been more relieved to reach a bothy.

Settling In At The Hutchinson Memorial Hut

It didn’t take very long to explore our new home for the evening. The Hutchinson Memorial Hut ( Hutchie as it’s sometimes referred to ) is not only one of the highest bothies in the UK at 700 metres above sea level, but it must also be one of the smallest. It consists of a small porch area and then the main room. What it lacks in size though it more than makes up for in location and feel. The room was clean and comfortable, but it was certainly freezing. This article tells you a bit more about the bothy along with its history. An interesting read I thought.

After changing our socks and other items of clothing, we set about burning some of the wood we’d spent several hours carrying with us. I’d read about previous parties warming The Hutchinson Memorial Hut to a balmy thirty degrees, so had no doubt that we’d soon get the place a bit more toasty.

Joined By Company

Like the previous night, we were joined by company about an hour after we arrived. This time it was in the form of a lovely couple, who’d ventured up from Manchester for a couple of days adventuring in the mountains. It turns out they ended up following the same foot steps we had. Here was hoping nobody else would turn up, as just four of us already left very little room.

As the fire roared and lifted the temperature, so we all ate plenty of food, consumed copious amounts of whiskey and even ouzo they’d carried in and of course swapped stories from our travels. Some of this was of course celebrating the successful arrival at the bothy too.

When Jack ventured out to visit the toilet ( a patch of snow away from the bothy ), he came back telling us to come outside. It wasn’t tempting with the nineteen degrees we were now enjoying, but I’m glad I ventured out. The clouds had broken and the full moon was illuminating the froze world around us. It could have been somewhere in the Arctic. As frigid as the air was, it was hard to drag ourselves away from the view.

By just after ten, we were all exhausted from the earlier hike and called it a night. We all slept solidly just as you’d expect and the resident mouse even behaved itself. No food packets or bags had been nibbled through the following morning.

The Following Morning

The Mancunian couple were early to leave and so myself and Jack enjoyed a bit more space and time at the hut before we thought about leaving. Holding some firewood back was also a great idea, as it provided a very comfortable spot to eat our breakfast.

Reading and signing the bothy book was an interesting experience too. It seems that only five days before our arrival, guests were complaining about a distinct lack of snow. It just goes to show how quickly conditions can change in these parts.

Soon enough Jack and I stepped out with our packs loaded and took one last photo in front of the bothy together before starting the journey back towards the car. We were in great spirits and knew what lay ahead. We also had plenty of time too and just drank in the views while just generally celebrating what an awesome experience we’d just had.

The team of volunteers who maintain this shelter do a brilliant job, so I shall finish by thanking you if you’re part of it and are reading this article. None of these bothies would exist without the help of The Mountain Bothies Association, so it is important that all of us who enjoy them remember this and treat the shelters like friends. That’s how they feel to me in these wild and at times dangerous areas.