Petestack Blog

Some fantastically runnable hills yesterday, with the Strathfarrar ridge proving a fast-moving delight despite bringing the rare indignity (outside of race situations!) of being caught by someone who was moving faster than I was…

So I’d come over the Tops of Sgurr Fhuar-thuill and was approaching Sgurr a’ Choire Ghlais at a decent, but not full-on, pace when I became aware of someone coming flying off Creag Ghorm a’ Bhealaich behind me and clearly catching me quite quickly. So (despite logically being outwith a race situation!) I thought waiting on top preferable to getting burned off between peaks, and soon discovered my nemesis to be Graham Dawson, a cheery young doctor from Inverness, who promptly invited me to continue running with him. So off we scurried over the remaining two Munros (my second 992m Carn nan Gobhar of the week + Sgurr na Ruaidhe), with Graham chugging uphill at an impressive rate and showing me up for the lumbering elephant that I am! But, despite perhaps holding him up just a little on this occasion, it seems that we both (as two habitual soloists) welcomed the company, with much enjoyable chat about our common interests in climbing, ultra races and big hill rounds.

To sum up, a good day out with the Strathfarrar ridge (at four Munros and two Tops completed road-to-road in about three-and-a-half hours) not only ticking all the boxes for ‘runnable but not dull’ but proving very much less arduous than its otherwise not dissimilar Mullardoch counterpart! :-)

Not so far from where I’d got to on Saturday, but approached from the opposite direction (Glen Cannich rather than Glen Elchaig), yesterday’s trip along the ridge north of Loch Mullardoch produced the very tidy haul of four Munros, four Tops and four deleted Tops with much very runnable ground before the long, not quite so runnable, return back along the lochside. While the intermittent drizzle and rather more persistent cloud (from which the photos represent rare moments of escape) perhaps weren’t quite as promised by the forecast ‘best day of the week’, the cooler weather at least made for quick, comfortable progress free of the now customary torture by sun, thirst and a thousand clegs!

So what can I say briefly about the day’s four principal summits? While Carn nan Gobhar seems notable mainly for sharing both name and height (992m) with another Munro just eight miles or so to the north-east on the Strathfarrar ridge, Sgurr na Lapaich is a fine, big peak with satellite ridges to north and south and some kind of ruined howff/bothy (see ‘fireplace’ photo) just to the south of its trig point. The crest of An Riabhachan (where I saw the goats that should perhaps have been on Carn nan Gobhar and met a steady stream of walkers who’d mostly taken the boat up Loch Mullardoch) is a hill runner’s dream, but An Socach is quite simply a long way from home with six or seven miles of shore the quickest way back (hence the popularity of the boat). And here, with the low water levels exposing some almost level ‘beach’ below the bigger stones and boulders, I took to the shore and followed that most of the way in preference to the notorious, bracken-compromised path, finding footsteps in the sandier patches to show that I wasn’t the first to think of it!

Looking for a ‘quick’ local objective today with the (as yet unfulfilled) threat of thundery showers later, I chose a run over the Aonachs with three main aims in mind:

1. Do Aonach Mor’s subsidiary eastern ridge for its Tops that have been irking me for years as my only unticked Munro Tops for many miles around.
2. Revisit Sgurr a’ Bhuic as ‘insurance’ against having it ticked for umpteen years with no recollection of when I actually did it.
3. Visit the supposed new Top of Aonach Beag recorded by Andy Nisbet and Dave McGimpsey on their route Munro’s Last Ridge in February 2003.

So here’s how it panned out:

1. That eastern ridge is probably the ‘best’ way up Aonach Mor, opening up fine prospects of the East Face cliffs before narrowing for Stob an Cul Choire and finally landing you close to the summit cairn.
2. Think I probably have done Sgurr a’ Bhuic before, but 100% sure now and it’s a good wee Top!
3. Afraid that new Top’s the sort of thing that’s getting deleted rather than listed these days. While it’s reasonably, if somewhat wishfully, described in SMCJ 2003 (see quote below), I’d say it’s just too close to the parent peak for the minimal (max. 10m?) reascent and, if that’s a Top, so (to give some appropriate local comparisons) are the Great Tower on the Ben and final pinnacle of Carn Dearg Meadhonach’s eastern ridge. For the interested, however, I descended pretty well direct to it (described as ‘walking’ in the FA description, but chossy/slippery enough in summer conditions to require considerable care in trail shoes!) before crossing a snowfield (yes, on 24 July!) to access a nice grassy rake leading back up to the easy top part of the North-East Ridge, which would retrospectively also have been an easier way down. Might add that, with the ‘large rounded summit’ (at c.1,035m) also being visible from the top of Aonach Beag and over by Stob Coire Bhealaich (which I’d also have to rate a dubious Top!), it’s surely obvious enough to have been considered and rejected before?

So that’s all for now, having enjoyed a good ‘wee’ expedition (longer than you might think at over 11 miles!) with an exploratory edge, but IMHO no lost Munro Top. To quote Simon Richardson in SMCJ 2003, however:

The vast east face of Aonach Beag saw one of the most interesting ascents of the season when Andy Nisbet and Dave McGimpsey climbed a long Grade II ridge-line to the left of the classic North-East Ridge. Remarkably, this led to an unrecorded Munro Top. Andy Nisbet explained later that the “face is so huge that the easier upper section of the ridge contained a large rounded summit with as much of a drop as some of the smaller Tops. Now named Munro’s Last Ridge, it might see lots of ascents from folk updating their Tops. We’ll have to get it in the next edition of Munro’s Tables!”

Who said exploratory mountaineering in Scotland is dead?

Might also admit (‘exploratory mountaineering’?) to starting my run from the top of the gondola, but offer the simple defence that I’ve done the Aonachs often enough without that helping hand to need no defending there! ;-)

Into the lonely country between Loch Arkaig and Loch Quoich today for Munro Sgurr Mor and its Corbett partner Sgurr an Fhuarain, with waterproofs worn all day and the camera never leaving its drybag. So perhaps I misjudged the weather (‘cloudy’ forecast but sunny when I left home) and certainly regretted wearing specs instead of contacts, but just had to get on with it (quite enjoyed it really) when there’s no way I was returning empty-handed from driving the queasy Loch Arkaig single-track rollercoaster! Saw neither peaks (which never cleared despite the brightening afternoon) nor other walkers, though I did pass a bike stashed just above the road on my return. So overall a good (wet) day even if the van reeked of (dogless) ‘wet dog’ on the way home!

So they keep telling us on the radio what lovely weather it is, but who’d say that while not just caught somewhere between frying and boiling on the hills but fighting off wave after wave of cleg attack?

Arriving at Inchnadamph at c.1:45pm (?) on Wednesday, I sweated my way up Conival, Ben More Assynt and the latter’s south top before retracing my steps over Ben More and contouring Conival (probably no quicker than reascending, but divertingly different!) to run back the same way.

On Thursday I almost got a head start on the sun by starting up Ben Hope not long after 7:00am (?), but was still cooking soon enough. And, while the ‘narrow northern ridge’ recommended by Irvine Butterfield as ‘by far the best way up’ might initially have seemed underwhelmingly broad and unexciting, there was no mistaking the ’30ft section of steep rock [which] gives spectacular scrambling’ when it finally arrived. For sure it’s avoidable by a gully (just left of centre in the ‘hope2’ photo) for those phased by the prospect of (allegedly) V Diff above a huge drop, but you simply can’t have your cake and eat it by dodging the exposure on the actual step. So the path peters out rightwards above the void (bigger/steeper than anything you can see in the ‘hope4’ photo taken from just above the nose) and a fall from the starting moves would surely kill you, but working back up and slightly leftwards from that dizzy stance (where the ‘direct’ route referenced elsewhere might or might not take the hideous right wall?) quickly brings a series of smaller steps and ledges at maybe (don’t take my word for it!) Mod or Diff…

So that was Ben Hope and, having descended past an increasing stream of walkers missing its (to me, unexpected) grandeur by toiling up the normal ‘tourist’ route, the obvious analogy that springs to mind is Ben Nevis north face vs. pony track. But, with the sun up and Ben Klibreck still in my sights for the same day, I was quickly heading back up the road to collect my van and move on.

Not really got much to say about Ben Klibreck except to endorse Butterfield’s assessment as ‘a bland hill’, though one redeemed (as so often with otherwise duller hills) by much runnable terrain and, being as isolated as any northern peak, another splendid viewpoint. And I met just two others (one of whom took my trig-point photo) on this madly hot afternoon (NB long trousers and sleeves for insect/sun protection, though I did take off the hat to run down!).

And so to Am Faochagach yesterday morning, which was now (spot the theme to this trip/blog post?) my last unclimbed Munro/Top north of the Ullapool road… and thank goodness I’ll never have to do Am Faochagach again! Dull as ditchwater and a long way from the Glascarnoch Dam (which route still looked a better ‘run’ than the shorter, potentially more awkward alternative from the west end of the loch), though perhaps partially redeemed by splendid views of the ‘Deargs’, Seana Bhraigh, Ben Wyvis, Fannichs and An Teallach, it’s surely never going to be anyone’s favourite and I was surprised to pass one walker on his way up over Tom Ban Mor as I ran down to complete the 14+ mile traipse by c.10:15am. So who wants to climb Am Faochagach at all, let alone on a day like this? Apparently not just me… though at least I got it out of the way quickly (5:50am start) and almost cheated the sun this time!

Quite a tough weekend in Torridon, supporting Robin Deroeck on the closing run of the very tough Celtman! Extreme Scottish Triathlon on Saturday and making a complete traverse of Beinn Eighe yesterday…

With Saturday starting seriously windy even at sea level (causing problems enough for the swimming and cycling legs!) and deteriorating with the arrival of forecast rain to ‘survival’ conditions on the mountain, the race organisers took the sensible decision to close the ‘high level’ course over Beinn Eighe with just 11 of 125 (?) starters through and divert everyone else to the ‘low level’ alternative round the back of Liathach. But this was still ‘character-building’ enough with the heavy rain arriving just as we made the Torridon road after a pleasant run on easy track/trail from Achnashellach via the Coulin Pass and Lochs Coulin and Clair, and Robin did well to hang on through atrocious conditions on quite ‘un-Belgian’ technical trail for an excellent 21st place.

Now, what a difference a day makes… and what better way to follow up a tough trail marathon than the traverse of Beinn Eighe (sole member of the Torridon ‘big three’ I’d never done) in conditions as good as the previous day’s were bad? So, after attending Sunday morning’s prizegiving to see my runner and his support-crew family (father, mother and wife) with whom I’d spent most of Saturday driving round the 202 km cycle route, I left my van near the T2A race checkpoint and made an unrecommendable beeline for the summit of Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe (dodging much of the scree via heather tongues till it became purgatorially continuous towards the top) before heading out over the Black Carls to the deleted Munro Top of Creag Dhubh and back to traverse the ridge all the way to Sail Mhor, back to the reigning peak of Ruadh-stac Mor (also taking the bad step of Ceum Grannda in both directions when it might have been better to reverse the peak order here) and down by the stupendous Coire Mhic Fhearchair, where I could hear but not see climbers somewhere on the Triple Buttresses. And that was that, with tired legs and feet tempting me home for a break from ‘van’ living when my original plan had involved staying for a repeat traverse of Liathach to mop up the tricky and rarely-done Top of Meall Dearg. But not to worry when it’s been there for thousands of years and should still be there for me ‘next time’ with Torridon not really so very far up the road! ;-)

[Sorry no photos from Saturday’s rain!]