Scooory Vooory vooooo

[GillC]

Morning came after a fabby well earned sleep in our wee Lochside camper spot at the bridge over Glen Quoich.
We had come indoors when the sun dropped and it cooled down but another comfy night with the 3 of us in the van. Blue skies defo better than yesterday mornings and the promise of another warm sunny day ahead as we had our breakfast and set the van up for the journey home later today.

Kerry and Heather are counting their Munros and this would be 30 for Kerry, 159 for Heather, I'm not really counting a second round,,but for the record,,,this was my 42nd repeated Munro since my compleation back in 2016

We had discussed our route and timing options and had initially decided not to do the full WH route by heading off to the North, instead switching between the same descent I had done before in the snow, March 2014 by heading South off the summit and down Leac nan Gaidhseich, or return by the same route of ascent......to be decided. My first visit here with John and Andy had been a snowy intrepid day with goggles, crampons and much hauling ourselves up snowy stuff lol. Today however, I was plastering on factor 50 and trying to stop any more sunburn on top of yesterdays roasted arms and neck. Lovely pink and white effect on my arms.

Heading off from the van just before 9, and crossing the bridge, (There was a pickup on the West end of the bridge with a top tent, windbreak and the unmistakable aroma of sizzling bacon, but the occupants were still enjoying their brekky as we passed earlier) I did ask if they were selling bacon rolls but the declined ) We strode round the road to the kick off point marked by a tiny cairn at the roadside, opposite a layby, (we parked here last time) Great we path, again zig zagging its way up under the pylons with views even more expansive than yesterdays at this time.

A look back to our camp spot by the bridge

Cloud free summits from the word go and low cloud in the distance shifted and cleared by the minute. Fairly soon, we could see CMD and Nevis to the South East, looking glorious.

Nevis and CMD zoomed in

The summit of the newly christened, Scoory Voory Vooooo comes into sight fairly early on, off to the West, atop the spectacular ridges approaching from both sides.

Summit off in the distance on the left

We hadn't seen anyone ahead and there were no other cars in the area that looked like anyone else was on the hill

We had been angling for a phone signal at various points over the weekend, I had not had a signal all day Saturday, unusual at the summits to get nothing, but Kerrie and Heather had the odd 4G hotspot so we found one at the top of Bac nan Canaichean so we had a wee break here, some food and phoning round to get a bed for Kerrie tonight ahead of her hill day with David Main tomorrow in Bridge of Orchy. A chap caught up with us here and after a brief chat, headed on his way. We followed shortly and headed off to make our way up the slopes of Sgurr Coire nan Eiricheallach. I didn't remember this from the last time, another example of the brain wiping out the up bits lol. The top of this is 891mtrs and the west side has much less descent that it appeared from lower down. The dry stone wall structure under Sgurr Coire nan E is one of those anomalies, was it built by starving locals to earn a crust? did it have an actual purpose as a boundary? didn't seem so in this location.

(There was a pickup on the West end of the bridge with a top tent, windbreak and the unmistakable aroma of sizzling bacon, but the occupants were still enjoying their brekky as we passed earlier) I did ask if they were selling bacon rolls but the declined )

We were now heading towards the summit, hugging the corries edge with a clear path up and around the rocks. This was a snow covered assault course on my last visit but today we just picked our way through.

Looking back at the ridge

The summit is at the North of a wee corrie and you ascend up this very steeply, a real leg buster. You see the summit cairn before you reach the top of the corrie so it spurs you on to get up and over. Sorted, summit at 12:30pm

Made it,

This was just astounding. A full 360 degree panorama of mountains. Nevis range, the Aonachs, Glenfinnan hills, Knoydart and the Sgur na Ciche group, Skye, Rhum, Torridon, Kintail and Glen Shiel, the Cluanie hills,,,just too many to mention. Simply sublime.l

The South Shiel Ridge to the North

Heather havng a moment lol

We had the energy left to have a bit of a laugh at the top, star jump photos, a wonder round, more singing and dancing and just enjoyed an amazing place to be on a Sunday afternoon.

Kerrie got a bit stuck setting up for a summit pic lol

By now, we had decided to return by the same route, good path, nothing unknown and prob the quickest option too, taking in to consideration we had onward journeys after this.

Left the summit at 1:05pm with a view to being back down by 4pm. I still hadn't had any signal all weekend so Kerrie messaged John to tell him I was still alive, got a thumbs up reply, which was nice

We were off the rocky summit and down below Sgurr Coire nan E pretty quickly, we met a couple on their way up and had a quick chat, they were prob 30 mins from the top. We had considered contouring round the big bump here but with no path and as I said earlier, a lot less ascent on this side, we opted to just continue on the path. Met another fella from Kendal who was on his 14th last Munro. Passed over the bump quite quickly and off down to Bac nan Canaichean where it levels out again. Much easier going here and again we turned to some tunes, bit of The Greatest Showman which literally had Kerrie dancing her way down the path lol, singalongakerrie

Hanging around, Gairich, Nevis, CMD beyond

We could see lots of tracks around the road to Kinloch Hourn and there was at least one other car parked up the road, again there were a lot of construction vehicles dotted around, but nothing moving, it was Sunday afterall

Fabby clouds

The view down to the cars at the bridge was quite elusive, we could see the road in, the wee copse of trees beside,,,then eventually the cars/van appeared, still there thankfully. The road below the hill got closer and closer but while the zig zagging path is easier on the knees, it probably doubles the distance you need to cover haha.

Back to the road, just waiting for Heather to get down before singing our way back along the (Country) road, taking us home,,,well back to the cars anyway.

Heather in the head high bracken just above the road

What a fantastic day, wasn't expecting 2 amazing days in superb weather, great company, just perfect hill days.

Back down the road to Ballachulish for Heathers car then a bit of dinner with Kerrie in Tyndrum before heading home, tired but happy.

Wonderful, the stuff of epic weekends.