free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
On my trusty 20 year-old steed at Inverlael.On a personal note, the round of this brace of Munros coincided with the seventh anniversary of my kidney transplant, and so was a special day for me. It’s always important that I remember the anonymous donor and team of medics that gave me a second chance with life and not just the hills. I’ll be forever grateful and humble.
The best weather we had all day, the view down Gleann na Sguaib.But we had clearly upset the weather gods this week in mid-September, and so we gathered at the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool for an early coffee and yet another weather check. The verdict was to head for Inverlael and assess the situation - if clear then we'd chance the brace of Munros due north of Beinn Dearg: Eididh nan Clach Geala and Meall nan Ceapraichean. Thus, the die was cast.
Just beyond this waterfall, Eas Fionn, it was time to fork left and head uphill towards Lochan a' Chnapaich.The sky teased us at Inverlael, with racing clouds and patches of blue sky, but with plenty of menacing storm clouds heading our way too. Of course we would chance it! We set off at 11:00, four on foot and me on the bike up the obvious track to Glensguaib. I'd done these Munros before and knew that the final couple of miles downhill on wheels late in the day would be most welcome!
Beinn Dearg's western buttresses became prominent across the glen.The forest track up to the old shieling of Glensguib is pleasant walking (or cycling) at a gentle gradient. The trick is to keep straight on and don't be tempted by any turns. Pretty soon we were crossing the River Lael by the bridge directly beneath Glensquib. Next, there's a tall stand of firs on the left, and white and blue-hooped hydro markers on the right that lead you easily onto the correct track to find the edge of the forest and the footpath up Gleann na Sguaib. A delightful family party of bullfinches called as they crossed my route. After a leisurely half-hour pedal, I stashed the bike and waited for the others to catch up. There's an information board in a glade about the RWE hydro scheme and a turning area as well as the forest edge gate, and so you'll know that you're on the right track.
Picking away across the rough, off the path and heading towards the W ridge of Eididh nan Clach Geala.The footpath up the glen is an old stalkers track and enables a good steady pace and ascent. After 90 minutes we found a cairn which marks a fork left to give a diagonal route towards Lochan na Chnapaich which we followed for half an hour or so including a short break before turning left again (north) aiming for the west ridge of Eididh. We then picked our own way across the rough muir and rocks, with the reassuring presence of the loch below. We hit the ridge to the east of the heart-shaped lochan marked on the map, to be welcomed by a covey of ptarmigan, although their cryptic plumage and worsening weather and visibility made counting them from a distance impossible.
The final climb up to Eididh's double summit.We'd fanned out gaining the ridge, and my line found me right in the heart of a level grassy area immediately beneath what appeared to be two summit tops. The viz was poor and I wandered across both these before joining my colleagues below the proper summit on the south side at 14:30 or three and a half hours since starting.
Summit selfie, Eididh nan Clach Geala.A compass bearing led SW to a straightforward descent to hit a gap between two lochans. The westernmost lochan feeds Lochan a' Chnapaich below Eididh, but the remainder form a paternoster chain heading eastward into Gleann Beag. From there it was easy to spot the route up Meall nan Ceapraichean which follows an obvious ramp up its steep NW slopes. Ceapraichean also gives a nice vein of quartz and a premature false summit called Ceann Garbh from this direction, and we made the real summit at 16:00 accompanied by strong north-westerlies bearing the first sleet of the Winter - lovely! It was cold and wet, and we wasted little time heading down to yet another high-level col, one shared by the three Munros of Ceapraichean, Cona Mheall and Beinn Dearg itself.
'Lunch' just in the lee of Eididh's summit.Descending Ceapraichean had included the briefest interlude of capricious light, which gave tantalising views of the Dearg buttresses and col. It's ephemeral moments like these that make even the dourest of days worthwhile. We'd briefly seen the dyke that runs along Dearg's NW ridge built in the 1840s to keep destitution at bay during a potato famine, and for just a second even the summit of Cona Mheall appeared. But generally, it was foul, and the rain returned with an incessant vengeance for the descent from the col and most of the six miles or so down Gleann na Sguaib.
The best and most capricious light of the day was looking S towards Meall nan Ceapraichean and the paternoster lochans below.Meall nan Ceapraichean from Eididh.There's a vein of Quartz somewhere up there en route to Ceapraichean![iSummit group, Meall nan Ceapraichean - Chris S, Pete, Doug and self, with Chris H regretfully half-cropped!][/i]
We saw one other distant person standing strangely sentinel by the lochan at the col, fiddling with a mobile I thought. Otherwise, we had these hills to ourselves for the day, perhaps hardly surprising given the adverse conditions. From this lochan it is down, down, and more down! I got into a Zen-like state and just kept going, the Dearg buttresses on my left appearing and then disappearing in the mists. I didn't stop and just pressed on.
At the lip of the col 'shared' by 3 of the Munros in the Dearg round (Ceapraichean, Cona' Mheall and Dearg).Beinn Dearg's W buttresses in the ever changing light.Eventually the forest appeared although it seemed to take an age to materialise in the form of a real entrance gate! I've never been so pleased to see my bike, and I soon overtook the others as I headed back to the car park for 18:30 or a seven-and-a-half-hour round. It's surprising though how quickly a change of clothes can restore morale! All that remained was a three-hour drive to my overnight in the campervan at Camster in Caithness before my ferry home to Orkney in the morning.
With: Chris Hearn, Pete Howe, Chris Sherwin, Doug Wheeler and self.
