Glen Dessary Four - two to go

[snowdonia7]

Sunday saw us do something we never had never previously done on a Munro bagging trip - take a rest day.
We had a leisurely drive to Fort William then followed the long and bumpy road along Loch Arkaig to tackle the Glen Dessary four on Monday.

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

This was the part of the trip I had been most apprehensive about - there were very few write-ups on WH for all four in a day and the two I read suggested something of a mammoth day. With our lack of hill days coming into the trip I frequently thought we might not make it. Ordinarily that might not be so much of an issue, but we had to get back to Torlundy for CMD on Tuesday and had the van booked on a ferry from Oban that evening to hopefully compleat on Ben More on Thursday.
So to give ourselves as much time as possible we agree on a 6am start, and would cycle the first few kilometres to Dessary Lodge just to save our weary legs on this part of the walk back.
Disappointingly we woke to heavy rain and cycled off with expectations of being soaked for many hours and not getting any views in return.
After dropping the bikes under the bridge at the lodge we continued the long walk in to a point below Sgurr na Ciche
The first part of the climb was steady and thankfully the rain abated before we entered the steep gully that climbed alongside and in the allt to the bealach between Sgurr na Ciche and Garbh Chioch Mhor.
The remains climb to the summit of Sgurr na Ciche was only about 200 metres although steep and rocky. The wind was howling on top so after a summit photo.

Sgurr na Ciche

We then headed straight back to the bealach where we had our first lunch break (although it was only about 10am).
The next climb was also pretty short but in a bitingly cold wind, so we had to move quicker than we would have liked to try and keep warm. The summit was pretty much like the first of the day, no views and with still many miles ahead we only stopped for a photo before plodding on.

Garbh Chioch Mhor

The next hour was spent stumbling through the rough and rocky section of the Garbh Chioch Mhor until we reached the bealach between there and our third Munro of the day Sgurr Nan Coireachan.

Sgurr Nan Coireachean

We stopped again for a quick bite to eat and for literally 60 seconds we were bathed in sunlight 🥸. However, within minutes as we donned our packs to resume it started to snow😳
Once again the climb wasn’t too long, although tired legs were starting to feel it, but once the snow stopped the views back towards Sgurr na Ciche were stunning. Again we didn’t hang around on top and trudged off towards our next objective Sgurr Mor, which annoyingly had two smaller up and downs in between.
We covered An Eag and Sgurr Beag and agreed to have a third lunch break on the summit of Sgurr Mhor as an incentive to push on.
Thankfully the tracks up Bheag and Mhor followed well-worn zigzags which avoided a straight up steep ascent,
It was still fairly sunny on the top but extremely windy so we found a bit of shelter to eat our remaining sandwiches looking down on Loch Quoich.

Sgurr Mhor

As refreshed as it was possible to be nine and a half hours into a walk we set off for the descent which was unrelenting and would certainly have benefited from some zigzags. My toes were throbbing by the time I reached the bottom, but I quickly forgot about them as I looked at the long climb ahead. There were no clear paths, which meant a few kilometres of trudging uphill (albeit fairly gently) through boggy terrain. Even when we topped out there was still a few more kilometres across similar,, but flatter terrain, occasionally picking up a faint track.
Eventually we began descending again to the bikes and even though the ride back was only a few kilometres it was great to get the weight of my feet. We arrived back at the van at quarter to six, tired but pleased to have finished a day the for so long had been a worry.
Tuesday was another rest day, and hopefully we could dry our kit before CMD.