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Despite having climbed over 1450 hills from lowly Castle Crag in the Lake District to being 47 away from completing my second round of Munros, this is my first walk report on WH, despite the fact that I'm an avid user for routes and advice!
- 6AM not a bad morning to wake up to
Most reports especially of spectacular walks include lots of great photos and a map showing the route taken, this report contains a token couple of photos and no map!
The reason for the post, is because I didn't know if the route was feasible and therefore others may wonder the same. I wanted to do the ridge all the way to Sgurr nan Gillean, however having read of the condition of the path back from Dibidil bothy, combined with the 12/14 hours that might be needed, and a younger fitter friend who took 15 hours, we decided to finish at Ainshval and return via the bealachs and Atlantic Corrie.
HOWEVER
We did the route exactly as you would expect, Hallival, Askival, Trallval and Ainshval, as this is well documented elsewhere I haven't gone into any detail. We left our rucksacks at the top of the scree path on Ainshval and set off with cameras and water. As is said in guide books the ascent of Ainshval is much easier than it looks and at the summit our attention wandered to Sgurr nan Gillean which all of a sudden looked tantalizingly close. "We'll have a look at the reascent from a little bit further along from the summit of Ainshval before making a decision" was our thoughts however the seed was planted and off we went. The stunning views from Sgurr nan Gillean were certainly well worth the effort, we admired the views, took photos and about turned to regain the summit of Ainshval, which turned out to be a pleasant and fairly easy stroll up it's grassy South side. It took us 1 hour to go to S n G, linger for a short while and return to the summit of Ainshval.
- Eigg from Sgurr nan Gillean
We then returned to the Bealach an Fhuarain, from there we contoured around to the Bealach an Oir at which point there is a decision to be made. Atlantic Corrie is full of rock fall some of which is very recent. 3 real options. Descend to the floor of the corrie to avoid the fallen rock, however the reascent required didn't look appealing. Try to contour around at roughly the same height as the Bealach an Oir, however that would have meant crossing the rocks at their widest point which also didn't have a lot of appeal.
We chose the third option, we ventured into the Corrie for about 15 minutes before climbing up towards some grassy areas which we could see on the west flank of Askival before heading roughly for the saddle between Askival and Hallival. There was still some fallen rock to cross however nothing serious enough to trouble the type of walker who was fit and knowledgeable enough to be tackling the Cuillin in the first instance. We didn't need to go all the way to the saddle to give us an easy stroll along to the Bealach Bairc- mheall and an easy descent back to the old dam at the lip of Corrie Dubh.
Whilst this was still a long demanding route it allowed us to go to the end of the ridge without having to face the descent to the bothy and the walk back that others were saying was taking them 3 and a half hours. On paper there doesn't seem to be much difference between our route and the more conventional Dibidil return, however it took us 4 hours from Sgurr nan Gillean to the campsite, I suspect the descent to the bothy and the walk back would have been longer, my apologies to anyone who has done it in less! We also stopped for a total of about one hour, along with numerous stops for photos and to ponder how to get up the west top of Trallval.
As a comparison last year it took us 13 hours to do the Fisherfield 6 from Shenavall.
As a final note in case you think we're young and fit, Robert is 68 and I'm 62.
