Fiacaill Coire an t-Sneachda

Not your average Sunday stroll, this jagged 'tooth' provides the most dramatic staircase onto the Cairn Gorm plateau. While the nearby ski lifts offer a lazy way up, this ridge demands you actually use your hands, unless you fancy a very rapid descent into the corrie below.

• •The name translates from Gaelic as the 'Tooth of the Snowy Corrie,' a fitting title for a ridge that holds onto its winter plumage long after the valleys have turned green.
• •This landform was carved by intense glacial action, creating the steep, shattered granite towers that make the ridge a legendary introductory scramble. It is a textbook example of a mountain arête.
• •In winter, the ridge transforms into a serious mountaineering playground, often requiring ice axes and crampons just to keep from sliding back toward Aviemore. It is a premier training ground for Scottish winter climbing.
• •The plateau above is home to Britain's only herd of semi-domesticated reindeer, who often look on with mild boredom while hikers struggle with the incline. They definitely have better natural grip than your expensive boots.
• •Navigating the summit plateau in a Cairngorm whiteout is a masterclass in existential dread. You will spend half your time squinting at a compass and the other half accidentally apologising to rocks you mistook for fellow hikers.