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After five excellent days walking in the fabulous NW, I was homeward bound. As per usual, I was hoping to take in a hill on the way back and An Ruadh-stac fitted the bill perfectly as it was only a short drive from Kinlochewe and would only take a morning's effort.
I parked at Coulags in the car park just west of the bridge over the Fionn-abhainn and set off in bright sunshine at 7:45am up the track heading north. I followed the track on the east bank of the river for a while then crossed over to the west side, past a bothy and at a path junction, turned left and made my way up the uncomfortably stony path up to the Bealach a' Choire Ghairbh. I had walked this path before when climbing the Munro, Maol Chean-dearg way back in December 1998 when I was a member of the Reading Mountaineering Club. At the bealach, got my first view of the dramatic east face of An Ruadh-stac.
I took the path that contoured to the left to a small saddle and then to the right up a rocky ridge and down to the saddle at the foot of the east face. This had looked intimidating and steep from a distance, but close up was not too bad. From the bottom I headed up the centre on large quartzite slabs that were nice and grippy (probably less so in the wet!). Higher up, the going was more broken and required a bit of careful scrambling over and around large boulders. Finally, at 10:40am I made it to the large summit cairn and sat down to enjoy the solitude and cracking views and tucking into my last remaining snack bars.
- Summit cairn, Maol Chean-dearg behind
- The craggy north face of the Graham, Sgurr a' Gharaidh to the south
- Beinn Damh with Beinn Alligin in the distance on the right
Reluctantly, I set off back down, looking for the most stable rocks and outcrops and being guided by a few small cairns. Lower down I was back on the large quartzite slabs and zigzagged my way down to the saddle at the bottom of the face. Instead of traversing over the rocky ridge, I contoured around to the left just above the two lochans and joined the main path at the large bealach.
- Looking back up the east face
- One last view before heading down
On the way down, I stopped several times to chat with people coming up - nearly all were going for the Munro (the easier and less interesting option!). If I'd had the time and energy, I would have detoured to take in the Munro as it was only another 340m of height gain from the bealach. On hindsight I wished I had, as since that day, I've decided to officially start on my second round of Munros!
I ambled down the stony track to the river and then jogged/walked on the main track back to the car. A few miles down the road, I detoured a few miles to Lochcarron for diet cokes - it was going to be a warm drive back.