South Glen Shiel Ridge

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The start of the walk, with the other group ahead of us.

On this beautiful weekend I was staying at Dornie community hall with the Glasgow University Mountaineering Club. A large group of us took the minibus out to a side road near the Cluanie Inn, at the west end of Loch Cluanie. Beginning at 08:00 prompt, we formed two groups: I was in a group of five while another group of eight began in front of us. Taking the trail around to the side of Creag a'Mhàim, we saw herds of deer grazing nearby. While the other group took a steeper shortcut, mine took the recommended path up the first munro, splitting the two groups. We reached the summit of Creag a'Mhàim at 10:09. Wind was low and temperatures were more than handleable, but the clouds were removing any visibility for the time being.

Clouds clearing between Aonach Air Chrith and Maol chinn-dearg.

The five of us continued to Druim Shionnach, which we got to at 10:46. Clouds were yet to clear at this point, but as we continued along, we started getting brief clearances while along the ridge towards Aonach Air Chrith. On the way to that summit, we found a patch of solid snow that we could not get around. We used footprints and ice axes to surpass the patch. We got to the summit of Aonach Air Chrith at 11:50. While that summit was also inside the clouds, our luck came in on the way to the fourth munro summit, Maol chinn-dearg, when the clouds fully cleared, giving us full visibility. We reached that summit at 12:54, where we spotted the eight-person group making their way onto the top of the fifth summit, Sgùrr an Doire Leathain.

After having lunch on Maol chinn-dearg, my group continued along to Sgùrr an Doire Leathain, making it to that summit at 13:59. Continuing on, we walked onwards to Sgùrr an Lochain, which we summited at 14:38. As we continued on for the final munro, Creag nan Dàmh, the sun entered a full setting phase. My group was also getting more tired, but we were able to keep moving on and we bypassed along the side of Sgurr Beag before moving up to the summit of the final munro, which we reached at 15:59.

The sunset sky as we descended from Creag nan Dàmh.

With our seven summits out the way, my group continued began making for the route down. In doing so, one of our group incidentally navigated us off the ridge path early, leading us down a hill part between two coires where bogs were high. We made down with haste while the sun continued to set, but progress was slow, and we reached the river fork at the base at roughly 18:00. Once across the river, we rejoined the path in time to start walking in the dark and we made it to the A87 around 18:30 to be picked up by our club.