Another superb Autumn day in the Highlands

[imacd]

The idea of doing this route was to 'break-in' the new boots, wearing them around the house wasn't proving too popular and a few circuits of Drumnadrochit woods wasn't much of a test. The weather looked better in the west so off we set with an idea this would be a bit of a stroll, I had glanced at the walk description and the only thing that seemed to sink in was that I wouldn't be heading west at the top.
For those reading this before going up the other reports are accurate - this is steep - very steep and relentless, but oh so worth doing.
We set off around 12:15pm and were back at the car park by 3:00pm with some short stops en route and about 20-30 mins on top (only on the east summit!).
As you'll see from the photos we had great weather and I must say something about the path, it is superb; the time, effort and money that has gone into creating this incredible route to the top and alowing the previous scar of a path to heal, deserves enormous recognition. This is a very busy route on a delicate hill and without the path things could get messy and dangerous.

Stac Pollaidh

Looking back towards the car park

Heading around the east side on the excellent path

The following image shows the east summit and somewhere up there are a very nice engaged couple trying to scramble to the top the hard way as some kind of pre-nuptual test of character - they ended up going round to the path and arrived at the top shortly after us - good luck for the wedding.

The east 'end'

Below are some of the neighbours

Cul Beag

Cul Mor

Suilven

Some views from the top (or as far as I was going)

From the Col looking west - some brave souls were heading for the peak

Looking East

We went back down to the main path and took the route west - a lot of people were retracing their steps, but if anything the return was gentler on the knees than I anticipate the way we came would have been.
All in all a cracking few hours spent testing the boots, which incidentally performed nicely and a route I highly recommend especially for the views

[James_McG]

What a fantastic climb to break your boots in

Great report & photo's, glad you got such a good day for your climb!

Laughing at that couples pre-nuptual test of character climbing the east summit, can think of easier ways but I guess the views would'nt be the same

Jim

[hills]

Good stuff! What a great hill this is, unfortunately falling apart very rapidly.