Rough and Tough in Ardgour

[weaselmaster]

Well, what do you expect? It's Ardgour

I asked Allison how she was feeling, fitness wise after last weekend's trip to Glen Dessarry. OK, she said, let's keep up the training program. So I put together a gruelling wee round of 4 Corbetts and 2 Grahams in Ardgour - starting off up Glen Scaddle and returning by Glen Gour. We'd done some of this from Scaddle before, but adding in Garbh Bheinn and Stob Mhic Bheathain increased the ascent significantly. Forecast was for much colder weather than we'd recently been accustomed to, but largely dry.

My intended route

Scadgourx.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Headed up on Thursday night - intending to cross on foot on the Corran Ferry as there was no sense in taking the car given our route. Then I noticed the sign "No Overnight Parking" at the ferry car park. Oops. The boat was about to leave, so we just went for it - I wasn't sure whether there would be any enforcement of this especially off season. But once we were across I just had to put any worries about the car out of mind.We headed up towards Glen Scaddle, knowing we'd only get a short way tonight. I'd seen on the map that there were likely looking campy places along the road beside the loch, and indeed there were. We pitched in one after a couple of kilometres, evicting a couple of sheep. The road was pretty quiet overnight - well at least until 5.30am when various large construction lorries thundered past.

A nice looking morning, pinks over the hills as we had breakfast, then set off along the road for Glen Scaddle. Quite a number of construction vans passing. Into the Glen itself and the first choice to make - my original route took us up Sron Leathad nam Fias and over the Marilyn of Druim Leathad nam Fias which joins onto Stob Mhic Bheathain. However it involved quite a bit of extra ascent and as our central goal was miles with big packs it seemed reasonable just to walk along the glen and head up Mhic Beathain on its own. I have no interest in Marilyns at the moment, ever since getting over my 1000.

FC5CB66E-E842-441B-AE84-07975294322B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

5F90523F-02FF-4680-BB48-06ED0BDB1F95_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

What we didn't go over
8049CC08-B111-412A-AAC5-DF4C83C98250_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

So that's what we did, easy walking and we'd done 15k in around 3 hours, which boded well for the track sections of the CWT. Allison was feeling really tired for some reason - all this having to work during the week clearly isn't good for you I was feeling fine. As we walked along the glen we were surprised by the new whiteness of the hills - everywhere else on the way up last night had been depleted of snow and here we were with new snow on ours! Didn't look problematic, but I was glad that we'd kept our axes handy just in case. We passed by Tighnacomarie and stopped at the footbridge, leaving our packs and starting off up Mhic Bheathain. Easy enough going, although as we ascended we ran into clag and snow. Once on the plateau I needed to check exactly which was the summit heap, as there are numerous nobbles along the ridge. Luckily it was one of the nearer ones, for a change. Back down the same way, more or less.

White!
13C8DD98-A5DD-402F-975C-82E3E27A90AE_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

D995C884-3696-4C04-BBAA-7B328AE6882E_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Mhic Bheathain
5C464C8E-9D1E-424E-B263-8C4DC5CB8B90_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

668D3BA9-EAAB-448A-9F5A-14FC43AA8B44 by Al, on Flickr

Nathrach
34505D04-12EE-4FD2-8F79-A7A96CC13919_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

We returned to the bridge and collected our packs then set off up the long back of Carn na Nathrach. We'd done this route before and it's just a steady slog. Allison was looking tired, but I reckoned we'd need to get to the bealach with Sgurr Dhomhnuill to camp for the night - it was quite windy up where we were, So sympathy wasn't forthcoming - get on with it was my mental response if not my spoken one. There's quite a steep descent to the bealach, but it's grassy as long as you pick the right line, so just a matter taking care. What looked like good spots to camp were either tussocky or boggy, but eventually we found an adequate position and set up camp.

Nathrach & Dhomhnuill
DDB2ED16-30CD-4802-987C-3BD82F5D7B05_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

C6F4AC33-E99C-4B2A-8032-29E81FB9A75A by Al, on Flickr

1286F13D-A736-419B-BD6D-4B30A6CE1E25 by Al, on Flickr

Looking down to bealach
36D3EF38-CDC4-41E9-9A2D-882F943C4212_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr


The restorative powers of food and sleep paid off and Allison was in better fettle on Saturday.We had a steep climb up to Dhomhnuill to begin our day - this time not going over the sub-Marilyn of Druim Garbh to save 140odd unnecessary metres of ascent. We followed deer tracks up to the bealach then did much the same going up to Dhomhnuill itself. Some crisp snow at the summit but nothing that caused difficulties. The day was looking sunny and we started down the steep side of Dhomhnuill by the usual path. Saw a couple of folk and a dog going up when we were near the bottom then met a couple from Oxford who were camping near the lead mines and going up Dhomhnuill later - their first holiday since 2019. Chatted to them for a bit then stopped for lunch. My GPS decided to malfunction at that point, losing data from the trip up til this point. I knew we'd done about 35k and probably 2100m ascent or so.

AFADE0E0-09BE-40A3-B915-EB1274A0CD0A_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

BA86B596-C990-4AAC-8A23-D68D26FE9415_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

692D5086-BF3F-481C-B011-181FBFB9896B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

D812CBEB-0AE5-46D0-B2FB-3E35F9E6DAAA_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

It was painful dropping all the way down to 100m to cross the Strontium River and head up Sgurr a'Bhuic. We did have opportunity to try out the new watershoes I bought with our CWT in mind. Did a perfectly acceptable job, all for £14. It was a bit of a slow climb up the slabby flank of Sgurr a'Bhuic weaving in and our of crags. Eventually we made it to the top, only to have to continue the ridge along to Sgurr nan Cnamh. This was a rough wee hill that we'd done previously when Allison was recovering from a slipped disc Probably not the best choice...Anyway, it wasn't troublesome approaching from this direction. We were soon at the top, enjoying good views over to Lochaber. From here my plan was to head to Loch nan Dearcag, pitch the tent and head up Garbh Bheinn.

4A47F6DD-BC98-46EF-A5BF-75FE47C7F12E_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

2F81AA9B-6C3C-4AB5-AD89-59D5693A43C2_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Garbh Bheinn
3E8A7C5B-DD14-430D-B0B0-A28E98F4C3C6_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Sgurr nan Cnamh
12610EBF-05D4-4E5F-BC50-3694B2FB71E0_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

A6233EF5-E6FE-43D5-9E7F-0FBB12EF78B4_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

17B0F3B8-9511-4EF0-B938-F670590F6336_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

F973E1E1-0E9F-4B16-9974-4B63D59079E3_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

75783B96-F99F-4462-91DA-85AB08F10BEF_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

We got down to the Loch alright, but finding a suitable spot wasn't easy - again we got a roughly acceptable one on tussocky grass, flung the stuff inside and set off for Garbh Bheinn with light packs. This was to be our third ascent of Garbh Bheinn and we've never once climbed it the standard way from the south. Up that bloody steep gully at the back, fortunately with hardly any snow left in place. It was steep and I wasn't looking forward to coming back down it - however that proved to be alright. Once at the top of the gully we crept up the side of the Tooth and gained the bouldery slopes to the summit. Bits of snow here and there, but not much you couldn't avoid. Nice views out to sea. It was just gone 6pm by this time and getting chilly. We about turned and retraced our steps, stopping for some delicious snow-melt water from one of the streams. Back to the tent, food and bed.

Loch nan Dearcag with Sgurr nan Coireachan behind
34F1EF0C-DD5A-4CE1-971D-E37CF7A2702B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

The Tooth of Garbh Bheinn
824CDB68-BDB2-47CE-BC8B-40F523968390_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

94E52BE5-A47C-4AB3-8930-81341049AA82_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

A77BBE0F-5F8F-4256-A81C-403481F1C6D2_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

EB8CED93-628E-4EB5-8864-8293CAE33E0F_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

356C02D6-F281-4844-8B01-2AB6695C062C_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

35B4C2E1-45C3-4819-8782-D9138D35C775_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

My plan for Sunday was to get down into Glen Gour, head up Beinn na h-Uamha and then exit the glen. However, getting down proved harder than we'd anticipated. I'd routed us down a wide looking gully NW of Beinn Bheag but we'd had a look at a gully to the north of Loch nan Dearcag on the way in the day before and it had seemed ok...so we headed off to try that. Hmmm...too steep sided and sudden drops in the channel. Maybe it was the one further west...we hit similar problems here. Huffing and puffing I said we were going down the way I'd routed originally. But we had a look at the side of the first gully we'd tried and it looked like we could pick our way down amongst the crags on grass. Bu of course it's easy to see a route from a vantage point, much harder when you're actually trying to descend. We followed deer runs for a bit then came to a section of slabs and crags. I tried a narrow grassy run over a steep drop, knocked a substantially sized rock out of place which smashed off other rocks as it tumbled to the ground far below, scaring a small herd of deer. And scaring me too, I'd admit. Not going that way. I tried another few options before finding a better way onto grass - after another lengthy time we were finally in the glen and off the crag face.

255711B1-18A5-49CF-95D0-598D0609A22E_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

196F6547-0DCF-4117-A1D1-706E24B3F4DB_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

84393967-DE6C-4400-B0DD-6F115A3884AD_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr


After that excitement my appetite for going up Beinn Na h-Uamha had disappeared and I suggested we put it off for another day. I don't think Allison minded much I felt that it could have ended in injury - my knees were feeling it after all those steep descents since Friday, and I knew Allison's would be worse, much worse. No point in training to do the CWT if we can't do it due to over-training...There was still quite a long walk out of the glen, criss-crossing the river (very low level at present) then joining a rough, stony track further along. At the end of the track we chose to walk through Ardgour Estate rather than the road. Made the ferry with a couple of moments to spare before it sailed. Now I was focussed on the situation with my car - would it still be there? Clamped? Fortunately it was sitting where we'd left it, unmolested. Quite an early end to the day for us, 2.45 and a quiet journey down the A82

This was the way I'd intended to come down
39CB7DCC-9320-4DFD-8AD7-54479FDBA7AA_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Uamha
7948A454-83DB-4582-BE5F-6A9D1DC41302_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

656508E4-22CE-411F-BD23-048A692DAF49_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

369A80B3-104A-4CF2-9F70-E7CF0A27CE9B_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

C71DDC34-7CBE-4546-9123-B70B0867696D_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

Just...weird
96A47359-0050-43F9-8AB4-BB6538BCBD78_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr

0F721905-3EBD-4B09-9ECF-4895457CD4CB_1_201_a by Al, on Flickr.

[johnbythell]

Wow! Those cloud formations! Looks fantastic and great report..