Sunday 9th April
Mullach an Rathain (245) 11km 1700m ascent Defeated by the mighty pinnacles!  Beinn Alligin seen from Liathach I was awake early to make the most of the good weather. Some medium altitude cloud spilled in during the early morning to remove the sun but this evaporated when I reached the summit ridge. No one else was interested in joining me for this walk - instead they decided to do a traverse of Beinn Eighe. I left the Youth Hostel at 9am to tackle the western summit of Liathach. My ascent route was via the Allt an Tuill Bhan. This brought me to a high hanging corrie which was greatly eased by the well worn path which I met half way up. The corrie headwall looked very steep both on the map and seeing it face on. There was erosion evident on some very steep sections which indicated that some folk simply prefer to slide down the headwall directly. This wasn't my way up. Instead there was a small bulge in the headwall that offered an slightly easier gradient. This route had a reasonable path cut into the slope.
The ascent of the headwall got steeper and looser near the top and a very slight touch of scrambling on very steep grass/rock was needed to reach the easier ridge above. At last I could take a few photos. Now the ridge I was on steepened to the final summit ridge with increasing amounts of old snow. Time to get my ice axe ready.
As I got closer to the summit ridge I was increasingly aware that this ridge would suddenly reveal a view over the other side. And in four steps, my view was transformed from one of snow just in front of me to the entire Flowerdale range! Wow what a view! The old snow up here already had thigh deep foot steps and to be honest, it would be pretty hard to slip here - no where for the foot to go!
A reached the summit and was immediately greeted with an eastward view to the pinnacles and the next munro. It was 10.45am and I was in good time. After a round of photos, I continued to the pinnacles - they looked terrifying but I thought their posture may look nicer when seen from close up. The walk over to the pinnacles went over a broadening ridge but this allowed nagging doubts to creep in. When seen fron the top before first pinnacle, I referred to my map to see just how long this ridge was. It was only 500m with the next munro occuping the same grid square as me! I contemplated the snowed up traversing path. A tried a feel for the exposure on the traversing path. It was steep - and with the snow it looked pretty dodgy ahead. I reluctantly turned back. There was no point getting into a situation that I wasn't confident in doing. To save time, I decided to tackle the slopes immediately in front of me to get into the hanging corrie. A look at the map indicated that these slopes were no steeper that what I had tackled before. From above, they also seemed to 'merge' with the easier ground below.
As I descended these slopes, I realised that there some obstructing crags beneath the very steep slopes I was on. A way down appeared to exist further west so I traversed across to reach it. The ground was largely grass but periodic scree had to be crossed. Care was exercised all the time. I reached a shallow stream gully cut into the slope. It offered an easier though rocky gradient down. The descent was easy but very steep. I moved out of the watercourse as it steepened near the bottom. I was only 20m from safety but I now had the steepest grass to tackle. My greatest fear was the grass breaking off from under my feet - it's happened before.
I reached the easier ground and it was now a matter of a quick and easy descent down to the road. After waiting 20mins I got a lift to start my attempt on the second summit further east. I started on the well engineered NTS footpath that headed up to Coire Liath Mhor. It was 1.30pm. I reached the bottom of the corrie and had lunch. The ridge above looked impregnable from hear. I hoped the path would pick an easy way up!
I continued on the path up the ever steepening path just beneath an impenetrable gully I hoped it wasn't going up there! Instead the path traversed diagonally upwards and rightwards. I hoped the path would level out and traverse round to the seemingly easy gully seen further east. Instead it appeared to just go straight up - up to the vertical crags. I was on a slope of neckache steepness already - the stuff above looked like the domain of the rock climber. Instead of following the path to the limit of my confidence, I concluded that the path was simply mad and turned back there and then! Time was pressing and I had to be down to report a safe return by 6pm Liathach had defeated me and it had my greatest respect for it was one of the most serious mainland summits in Scotland.
I returned to the road and just spent 20 minutes staring at the ridge in awe. I tried to trace the path traversing the pinnacles. I could see some ledges in a very exposed situation from down here. It looked exposed! A hitched back to the youth hostel and did a post mortem of my route with the warden, Neil. Apparently the ascending path traverses across beneath the crags that I could see on pretty easy (though steep) ground. Shame I didn't take a look but none the less it was a very successful day for taking photographs! That evening was a definite Colin Prior evening. The mountains turned very red. A fitting end to the day!
Monday 10th April
Slioch (246) 19km 1100m ascent All change with the weather Early morning saw the tops largely clear of cloud and dry but this steadily descended during breakfast. The forecast was for patchy drizzle / rain during the morning clearing during the afternoon. At least the afternoon sounded promising. Five of us set out to do Slioch at the more leisurely time of 10am.
It started off dry but on the 5km walk in to Loch Maree and Gleann Blanasdail soon saw drizzle coming in. It was heavy enough to soak but light enough to blow into your face in the slighest wind. Either way you were soaked. Tim turned back after 30mins despite wearing an expensive £200 jacket. Chris Redburn turned back soon after and the two of them spent the day in Gairloch looking at trawlers. This left just me, Agnes and Seb to carry on to Slioch. Five minutes after Chris turned back, the drizzle stopped. Afterwards the drizzle turned to showers that turned increasingly brief during the day. We were now ascending a well worn path into Coire na Sleaghaich from the impressive Gleann Bianasdail.
After lunch we continued up the corrie then took a path that cut back across the south corrie arm to one of two lochans. From here the ascent to the summit plateaux was steep but easy up the eroded slopes. The mist was trying to shift, but alas only glimpses of views were seen - not good enough to get the camera out. We reached the trig point and then traversed round to the main summit (one meter higher!). The summit is perched right on the edge of enormous cliffs. It was 2pm - it took four hours to reach the summit from the road - clearly I was tired after yesterdays efforts. We now walked along the northern arm of Coirena Sleaghaich to Sgorr an Tuil Bhain. The ridge was narrow in places - but an easy walk none the less. We left the cloud and emerged lower down for some photos. We continued back down the way we came. The eastern tops of Beinn Eighe were clear of cloud but Slioch was always shrouded in mist. I was expecting nicer weather today but none the less it was a reasonable day. Tim was waiting in the car park for 2½ hours. He seemed pretty moody about it. We got back to the road at 5pm - 7 hours of walking. Tonight would see a transformation of these almost snowless hills back into winter. |
