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I think I'm probably going to have to put the Quinag at the top of my favourite list to date. Despite the extreme haze and fierce wind on the days I was up there, it was still extremely enjoyable and I fully intend to return on a clearer day. I arrived late afternoon after a late start in the morning and then a couple of hundred mile drive. The intention was to get one or two of the peaks done the first day, complete it the second morning and then move onto Stac Pollaidh or something for the second afternoon.
Setting off from the car park I think I probably had the hills to myself as everyone else had already been and gone by this time. The ascent of Spidean Coinich is relatively straightforward although steep near the summit. Staggering views all the way though. I really wish it hadn't been so hazy as the camera just couldn't pick it up - I should have been blasting through the memory cards, but as it was I took very few pictures.
By the time I'd ambled up and down Spidean Coinich and hill 713 (or 714 depending on which map you believe) I found myself a bealach between 713 and a scramble up to the ridge leading to Sail Ghorm. It was 19:00 by this point and I figured I'd plant my tent for the night. Despite finding a bit of shelter behind a little mini ridge the wind was still substantial and erecting the tent needed care. Tent planted, I made myself some tea and watered my pack n' go dry bag of something or another. I hid behind a rock right on the cliff edge while I had my dinner, admiring what would have been absolutely breath taking views had there been less haze, but spectacular none the less.
After dinner I walked down the hill a bit to get some water from a small burn, ambled about a bit, got ready for the night and eventually got into my sleeping bag at about 23:00. Between then and about 01:00 I reckon I got about 20 minutes sleep. Every time I would drift off the wind would pick up some more and the phenomenal noise whistling past would wake me up again. The wind was definitely on the increase and I figured at best I wasn't going to get much sleep, at worst my tent and I were going to find ourselves going over the cliff edge 20 yards away. According to my map I was only a couple of miles away from the car at this point and the path had looked relatively decent earlier on. Putting on my best failure hat, I packed everything up, strapped my pack on, and trotted off down the hill back to the car. Just to help my mood It started raining as soon as I got the pack on, and stopped raining as I reached the car an hour later. Yay.
Ten minutes later I had the back seats folded down, mat and bag out and was relatively happily drifting off to a nice quiet sleep for a few hours.
The next morning brought clear skies and sunshine so after a quick tea I set off with my smaller pack to get the other two summits submitted. Again, crazy amounts of haze, even more than the day before, but a truly excellent walk none the less. Difficult going in one or two places requiring a bit of technical fancy footwork, but by and large quite straight forward. I was glad I had quit camp the night before though, the wind had picked up quite substantially and my little anemometer was reading a couple of gusts over 50 mph. The hills were pretty deserted and I only met a few people the whole day, and we all had a good chortle at the MWIS claims of 20mph gusting 30.
Theres not really a whole lot to write about the walk, it's one that the pictures really should do all the talking, but due to the haze there wasn't a whole lot of picture taking going on, so I think I'll just have to go back in the autumn and take the quantity of pictures it really deserves.
