Steven Loraine - 132580

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Winter Walking Record

Details

Date : 11/02/2024

Duration : 5-8 hours

Style : Solo

Type : Quality Mountain Day (QMD)

Weather : Light snow - poor visibility

Wind : Moderate wind

Camping Type : N/A

Nights Camping : 0

Mountains : Sgurr a'Mhaoraich - Sgurr a'Mhaoraich Beag

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Description

Into Glen Garry from Invergarry and the now familiar drive along the glen, past the dam, Loch Quoich (Cuaich) and then parking at the head of the loch at the outflow of the Water of Quoich and the entry to Glen Quoich. Easy kilometres then follow along the water to the strath at Alltbeith. Here a turn north and then north-west takes one into a narrow side glen beside the Allt Coire a Chaorainn. The good estate track peters out at the final run-of-the-river hydro damn some 2 kms along this side glen. From here an intermittent and poor track appears then disappears amongst increasingly boggy ground. Soon enough though the steep slopes up to the Bealach Coire a Chaorainn. These slopes are covered in boulder sand towards the bealach hard snow and ice appeared although the depth underfoot was not deep. At the bealach (784m) visibility came down to around 25m and crampons, ice and helmet were donned. Above the bealach on its NE side, steep and rocky slopes provided quite a challenge in ascent. There was no obvious track and picking a safe scrambling route initially proved difficult. However, after a few false starts, some decent rock steps and hard turf provided an ascent to the ring contour at 885m. In retrospect, the route of ascent from the bealach did not look inviting at all for a descent back down, being as steep as it felt in ascent and not suggesting of nay easier way back to the bealach. There was an alternative after reaching the 899m summit. In deteriorating conditions, as visibility reduced further down to 15m and snow fell on a strong breeze, I located summit, confirmed the 6 figure GR and satisfied myself I had the second demoted Top of this weekend at 899m (Am Bathaich is NOT in the database of this website). The route ahead offered a fine high level traverse of Am Bathaich's summit ridge, trending NE to an 892m point then NNE to a quite pronounced subsidiary summit contour at 828m. Here, after crossing a narrow bealach, the East ridge offers a fine route of descent. After 200m of very steep, rocky ground a stalker's set of zig-zags becomes apparent and these speed the descent considerably. At 600m I took off my winter gear and completed the descent back to the estate track next to the Allt. This transpired to be a much quicker and probably safer descent than reversing the scramble at the high bealach. Back to the hydro buildings and 2.5kms of pleasant walking brough me back to the van and the Loch side.

Area : Loch Eil to Glen Shiel

The Great Glen to the east, the A87 to the north and the A830 to the south separate this area from its surroundings and enclose an area of high mountains and low glens. The highest mountain is Sgurr na Ciche (1040m) and further north the South Glen Shiel Ridge is formed by a whopping seven Munros! Also in the area is The Saddle (1010m) which is home to the classic Forcan Ridge. Peaks in the mountains list are all above 900m.

Location

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