Moruisg and Sgurr nan Ceannaichean

[gld73]

Forecast was good everywhere today after so many recent days of heavy rain - dry, negligible wind, some sunshine, reasonably mild. Optimistically thought I might get up at a decent time and get down to Glencoe, but I hit snooze too often on my alarm, so had to have a re-think. Next thought was Sgorr Ruadh and/or Fuar Tholl, but with the recent heavy rain I didn't fancy the river crossing near the start. Settled on Moruisg and Sgurr nan Ceannaichean, a walk I'd attempted on a cold, wintery day 3 or 4 years ago but had ignored the forecast for gale force winds - I'd made it on to the Moruisg summit plateau, crawled (literally) to the big cairn, literally unable to stand up, then gave up and tried to get back down into the shelter of the west slope, hit a patch of ice and promptly slid at break-neck speed 30m, losing my walking pole, came to a halt between gullies, and had to go the rest of the way down on my bum using my ice axe as a brake as I was too scared to stand up again.

No repeat of that today (though I didn't come across my lost walking pole either).

This time I more or less managed to follow the Walk Highlands circular route. A handful of cars in the lay-by as I suspect was the case in most "walking" laybys, everyone wanting to make the most of a rare sunny saturday in November. Boggy start, steep ascent on increasingly nice terrain, made it to the big cairn then along to the smaller summit cairn of Moruisg and enjoyed the views. One of those days when every mountain looked a good one to be up.

Photos never make the ascents show how steep they actually are...

Large cairn on Moruisg's summit plateau, Torridon giants looking good in the background

View from the smaller cairn at the summit back along the summit plateau

The sweeping walk around to Sgurr nan Ceannaichean was really enjoyable and straightforward in these good conditions, a path visible through most of it. Passed a handful of other people doing this route today, but all spread out so it never felt like a conveyor belt. Again, Sgurr nan Ceannaichean has a big cairn then a smaller summit cairn; certainly an impressive looking mountain for a corbett.

The nice route to Sgurr na Ceannaichean ahead

...though the descent route down the NW branch looks quite steep

Maoile Lunndaidh, one of the two munros from Glencarron I've still to do

Sgurr na Ceannaichean summit

Looking back to Moruisg from Sgurr na Ceannaichean's summit

I was okay following the path for most of the descent route, then after the steep part of the descent I lost it. Instead of checking the instructions to try and find it again I just continued down where I could see a gap in the deer fence, went through it and continued across rough boggy ground for a bit before I checked the map, realised veering a bit more north would make more sense, checked the instructions and realised I should be on the other side of the Alltan na Feola burn on a path. The drop down into the gorge to cross the burn was too deep by this stage, so I had to go back up, climb the deer fence near the burn, go down and cross the burn (not enough rocks exposed to keep 2 dry feet, so I ended up knee deep on 1 leg), up the steep bank and on to the path. From there I was back on the intended route for the boggy walk back to the car.

Didn't take as long as I expected, I probably could have travelled further or done a longer walk, but still glad to have got this one done today, really enjoyed the walk between the summits.

Left car 1030, Moruisg summit 1157, Sgurr nan C summit 1245, back at car 1445 (4.25hrs, but I don't stop much at all)