Mullered - XXXX hot with a very unpleasant after taste!

[Graeme D]

Maybe Kev was the lucky one! He had already bailed. I on the other hand was now over 6 hours into a walk in sweltering conditions and I still hadn't reached the summit of the first Munro. First of a bare minimum of two. Four would be great, even three, but even that was looking an utterly forlorn hope. Four would mean repeat ascents of the third and fourth ones and so to be brutally honest, 6 hours in and given the sweltering conditions, I no longer gave a flying fu........

!!!HEALTH WARNING!!!

This report contains one of the biggest, most unimaginable, most inexplicable navigational screw-ups you are ever likely to read about here or anywhere else for that matter! It has taken me two weeks to get round to posting it. Not because I'm too scared or embarrassed to admit to it on a public forum, but rather because it was only when I was writing the report itself in the immediate aftermath of the walk and was almost finished that the full horror of what I had somehow managed to do hit me like a punch in the face. At that point I kind of lost the will to go back and look at what I had done. However, I have read many reports on here that have told of epic navigational nightmares and have always admired the willingness of the writers to lay bare their miscalculations and discombobulations. "It can happen to any of us" I usually think when reading about them. "It'll never happen to me" I usually think when reading about them. What makes this so hard to get my head around is the fact that it was so amateurish and totally avoidable but most of all the fact that it simply did not even register with me until days later!!!

......... anyway, as I was saying, 6 hours, and still nothing to show in terms of new blue balloons. Plenty of distance covered, almost certainly plenty of ticks picked up, plenty of sweating and refilling of water bottles at every opportunity, plenty of cursing and foul language. But no new Munro summits yet. If I only managed the one, the actual one whose sweeping southern ridge I was now labouring my way up in a heatwave the Spaniards or the Greeks would be proud of, I'd be left with one lone red balloon awkwardly placed in the middle of the circuit, with blue balloons to either side and no quick and easy way of coming back to rectify the situation. In short, the exact same situation that Kev had been trying to rectify today before bailing!

We had been going to do Fisherfield via the long walk in from Poolewe to the north. The second weekend in June had been chosen and booked in months in advance. Kev still had the northern two Munros to tick off and I had all five still to do and with my total fast approaching (OK, not so fast, but definitely approaching!) the 250 mark, they couldn't elude me for much longer. Or could they?

Logistics became a bit complicated in the run up however, with an oversight on my part about my work commitments on the Friday and various other issues meaning that I would not be able to leave Perth until at least late afternoon and possibly not until after 10 o'clock that evening. I did contemplate leaving Perth at around midnight which would have got me into Poolewe and up and walking for around 4 am but Kev was all for heading up much earlier in the day and wanted to get his two targets done and then enjoy a high summit camp to escape any midge threat and enjoy any decent sunset.

My plan was to try to do all five of the Fisherfield Munros before heading home on Sunday while Kev was planning to ship out after Ruadh Stac Mor and A'Mhaighdean. His plan was then to knock off that pesky red balloon I mentioned earlier on his way back down to Glasgow, having somehow managed to do the ones on either side and thus leave himself the problem I was currently 6 hours into trying to avoid myself with so far limited success! Still following???

In the end, realising that I was probably not going to get away before early on the Saturday morning, I suggested that I scratch the Fisherfield idea and we meet up early doors on the Saturday morning for what would be a Plan B for me. I would get my two outstanding Munros done (or maybe even the four although by now, some 6 hours into the actual walk itself, I was wondering who the hell I had ever been trying to kid with that foolish notion!) and Kev would get to tidy up an unfortunate looking blemish on his Munro map. What could possibly go wrong!?

By the time I had set a 4am alarm and turned in for the night, Kev had messaged to say that he was bailing entirely! Having walked in from Incheril on the Friday afternoon, he had made the summit of A'Mhaighdean but had then been forced to beat a retreat to his tent near Lochan Fada where he spent much of the night concerned that he was under alien attack from the skies! Despite his best efforts to take sufficient fluids on board, he was beaten. Done in. Gubbed. A human prune. Going straight home in the morning presumably for a cold bath and a rigorous rehydration routine!

And so here I was. I had left home at 04.45 and started walking at 08.45. A leisurely drive up with a couple of stops for Luna and an inexplicable navigational faux pas! Maybe that should have been a sign of ill-omen!!! Best get it out of the way on the road up rather than on the hills themselves I thought! It was now mid-afternoon, somewhere around 3 o'clock give or take. I was being baked alive and finding the ascent of the sweeping southern ridge up onto An Socach, the most westerly of the 4 Munros standing guard over the north shore of Loch Mullardoch, one of the most gruelling hillwalking experiences I could call to mind! Some 6 hours and several litres of bodily fluids ago I had set out past the northern end of the dam and through the gate at Benula Lodge onto the lochside track.

The start of the mad Mullardoch malarkey

It had been almost 3 years since I last came this way. 10th July 2020 to be exact. Less than a fortnight after the lifting of restrictions imposed some three months earlier as part of the first COVID lockdown. That had been like the hillwalking equivalent of house arrest and having broken the drought the previous day on Stob Ban in the Grey Corries, I had been keen to add the Mullardoch Four. That day I had opted to go anti-clockwise, ascending Carn nan Gobhar via the broad slopes of Mullach na Maoile, hoping to descend off An Socach for the long yomp back along the north shore of the loch with 4 new Munros in the bag. History however shows that I bailed after Munro #2, Sgurr na Lapaich, on weather grounds, and retreated to the tent below the Mullardoch dam.

Today I was going clockwise. The main targets were at the far end of the route - no point going over two repeats when I could take the low level approach via the lochside. It was clearly going to be a scorcher. Take down the two main targets and then see what's left in the tank. Anything extra would be a bonus!

We hadn't gone too far before Luna availed herself of the water feature!

We crossed the wooden footbridge over the Allt Mullardoch and followed the broad, grassy landrover track that progressively deviates away from the shore, before we cut across on pathless terrain to the little clump of trees to pick up the narrower path closer to the exposed shoreline.

Still making full use of the facilities - would be rude not too!

This place is full of ghosts and memories of bygone times and ways of life - some above the water like this one, many more below!

Looking back to the dam - hosepipe ban anyone!!!???

The car park by the dam had been rammed. After watching the car that arrived seconds before me bag the last space, I had to drive a few hundred yards back down the road to a small flat area of rough ground on the right. It was going to be a long route as it was, so what would another few hundred yards be between friends? Despite the busy car park, there was nobody else in sight and I hadn't seen anyone since I had set off. I knew where they all were though - up above me away to my right, somewhere between Carn nan Gobhar and An Socach. I wondered how sweltering it was up there and how any dogs were faring without such impressive bathing facilities.

We crossed the Allt Taige or at least what little was left of it, a little under halfway to the buildings at the foot of the Allt Socach. Maybe it was the number of times I deviated from the path down to the receded waterline to throw a stick or pebble in for Luna, maybe it was just a subconscious or not-so subconscious decision to delay and avoid the possibility of being tempted to go for the Full Monty, but it took me over 3 hours to reach the Allt Socach and the bridge over it by the buildings where I eventually sat down on a little rough bench and had some lunch.

The Allt Taige - hard to believe on a day like today that this is sometimes a raging, impassable torrent

An indication of just how far the level of the loch can rise and just how far it has currently fallen

South shore reflections

Beinn Fhionnlaidh across the Narrows and the little island showing a lot more leg than the OS sheet lets on!

So the easy bit was now behind me as I crossed the wooden footbridge over the Allt Socach and began the climb up the path on the north side of the Allt Coire a'Mhaim. I wasn't sure how I felt about that fact, but I batted it away and plodded on. Another wooden footbridge soon crossed over the Allt Coire a'Mhaim and the path then promptly petered out in a maze of dried out peat hags on the broad, flat plateau of Meall Bac a' Chul-dhoire.

Ascending to the north of the Allt Coire a'Mhaim

Maybe Kev was the lucky one! He had already bailed! I on the other hand was now over 6 hours into a walk in sweltering conditions and I still hadn't reached the summit of the first Munro. First of a bare minimum of two. Four would be great, even three, but even that was looking an utterly forlorn hope. Four would mean repeat ascents of the third and fourth ones so to be brutally honest in the sweltering conditions, I no longer gave a flying fu........ Anyway, as I was saying, 6 hours, and still nothing to show in terms of new blue balloons. Plenty of distance covered, almost certainly plenty of ticks picked up, plenty of sweating and refilling of water bottles at every opportunity, plenty of cursing and foul language. But no new Munro summits yet. If I only managed the one, the actual one whose sweeping southern ridge I was now labouring my way up in a heatwave the Spaniards or the Greeks would be proud of, I'd be left with one lone red balloon awkwardly placed in the middle of the circuit, with blue balloons to either side and no quick and easy way of coming back to rectify the situation. In short, the exact same situation that Kev had been trying to rectify today before bailing!

Best crack on then, even if every step feels like a Herculean effort! It had been hot enough at the dam in the relative coolness of 9 o'clock. Now the sun was pretty much at its full height and the stamina was literally being sweated out of me with every step forward. It looked like the water refill opportunities would now be limited at best for the next however long and I was applying enough Factor 50 to merit Nivea opening a new production outlet!

Down the broad ridge of Meall Bac a'Chul-dhoire and acaross the Narrows towards Tom a'Choinich and Toll Creagach

Scabby and shrivelled up - and so is the western end of Loch Mullardoch!

It was sometime around this point in proceedings that I encountered my first human life form of the day, a solo walker coming down off An Socach, presumably with four Munros in the bag and the long walk out along the loch still to look forward to and savour! He was soon followed by another bloke on his own. How I wished I was in their walking boots and not mine, although I was at least thankful that I had done the long tortuous loch side path and didn't have that still to face!

Skirting to the south west of Coire Mhaim

An indication of just how dry it has been - more like Death Valley than the Scottish Highlands

It's a long way home now whichever way you look at it!

The stream coming towards me was now getting steadier, still mostly solo walkers or pairs, the occasional hot dog in tow. I knew the owners of all those vehicles clogging up the parking area would show up sooner or later! It was now patently obvious, if it hadn't been before, that four Munros were not getting done today. Carn nan Gobhar I could live without. It hadn't been in my top 100 when I did it a few years back and I doubted that it would fare any better today. I was still keen to get in a repeat of Sgurr na Lapaich. It is a mountain of considerably more character and having done it from the other side, I was keen to do it again from this side. i also knew the walk off and descent back down to the loch was very pleasant and would take a considerable chunk out of the lochside path.

An Riabhachan across upper Coire Mhaim

Luna contemplates making a run for it!

Shadow kissing An Riabhachan

Beinn Fhionnlaidh, Carn Eige and Mam Sodhail - memories of another scorcher 11 months ago

Eventually we topped out onto the relative flat of the ridge as it curves around in a crescent shape towards the trig point at the western summit of An Socach, the Munro summit of the mountain. Suddenly I had more in my step. It was no longer an ordeal. The ascent was killing me today but once up and on the relative flat of the ridges, it was a different story. I was still feeling the pace badly, but it was more than manageable. A slight breeze was helping to take the edge off and I hoped the worst was now behind me.

North west towards the Achnashellach and Torridon hills

An Riabhachan across Coire Mhaim and Coire na Brogaichain

So close now. Oh so close!

It had been a long, hard, sweaty, at times painful shift but the labour was probably now worth it on balance. The views in all directions were stunning, a touch hazy around the edges but that took nothing away from the views, the sense of isolation, history, wilderness and huge open spaces. All around were familiar yet different views of conquered hills or hills still waiting patiently to be conquered. It's one of the things I love about this malarkey - a sense of past memories flooding back and anticipation of new ones yet to be formed.

South west towards Loch Mhoicean sandwiched between Aonach Buidhe to the right and Carn na Breabaig to the left with Iron Lodge and Loch na Leitreach beyond

A lot of good memories in this photo and a lot of anticipation as well

Look Luna, a Munro summit! After all this time, we've almost got ourselves another Munro summit!

I think it was getting on for 6.5 hours by the time I slumped down at the ring of stones circling the cylindrical trig point marking the summit of An Socach. Surely a record, for me anyway. Sure, it has taken me longer to reach a summit but that would have included an overnight camp, bothy night e.t.c. on the way. In terms of car to summit in one pull, this was surely a record!

From the summit of An Socach looking back round the rim of Coire Mhaim

An Riabhachan from An Socach with the sweep of Loch Monar and the Strathfarrar Munros beyond

Two blokes appeared at the summit just after me and plonked themselves down a short distance away. I vaguely recognised them as the guys who had just beaten me to the last parking space this morning! They seemed remarkably fresh, despite the fact that one of them was talking about his knee operation! Like everyone else I had encountered today, they had come towards me rather than overtaken me. I could have added "or been overtaken by me" to that last sentence but this would have been a futile and pointless addition!

By now the chances of me running as the Republican Party candidate in the next US Presidential election seemed more likely than me doing the Round of Four today. But hey, at least one was in the bag now, and it was a new one. My Mullardoch situation was exactly the same as Kev's. Only difference was he was at home in an ice-bath and I was at the summit of An Socach with little energy left but still a considerable amount of daylight. And the fact that to get back to the car at the dam, I pretty much had to go over An Riabhachan anyway. Best get going G! I headed off eastwards, meeting a group of four blokes and another two blokes with a Collie dog on the way. Luna and the Collie looked disdainfully at one another but neither had the energy left to do any more than that!

Back to the summit from the East summit

Ahead to the huge bulk of An Riabhachan

On the descent down to the Bealach a'Bholla I passed a girl on her own ascending An Socach. She seemed a bit surprised to find an old geezer and his dog going the wrong way round and on their way to the second Munro at such a time of day. I advised her that I was doing An Riabhachan come hell or high water, Sgurr na Lapaich just about remained a remote possibility but that Boris Johnston had more chance of summiting Sgurr na Lapaich today than I had!

An Socach living up to her name from the Bealach Bholla

Luna being a Labrador, she possesses a number of super powers. One being the ability to carry the same rock for the duration of a walk lasting several hours if not several days! Another being the ability to sniff out water (particularly of the stagnant rancid variety) from several miles away! Both of these super powers were put to use today to maximum effect!

Oh dear! I have to share a two man tent with this tonight! Fortunately I will be so knackered as to be blissfully unaware!

Once more back to An Socach

An Riabhachan - looks like I might just about get out of this with two new ones in the bag!

By now the steady procession towards me of humans and the odd canine had dried up, in keeping with myself and the landscape around me. I trudged on. I wasn't in the slightest concerned about the daylight situation. There was loads of it left. I had a head torch in the day pack but to be honest, it was unlikely to get very dark at all any time soon. I was just a bit miffed at the thought of limping in at some ungodly hour with barely enough energy left to put the tent up, let alone cook and actually enjoy dinner and then chill with a beer or two and the sudoku book!

An Socach, Bealach a'Bholla and the 1040m spot height

A final, short, sharp, painful pull led me to the 1086m spot height on An Riabhachan. Something then happened that I am genuinely flabbergasted by. I cannot for the life of me explain it! Still, as I write this almost two weeks since the events themselves, I am at a loss. I can only imagine that the extreme heat and effort of the day had reduced my metacognitive abilities to the actual level of a prune! I have always been a more than competent navigator and my years of hillwalking experience in all conditions have honed these skills. I have managed to navigate myself and others through some pretty horrendous conditions when visibility has been almost non-existent. Today though there was perfect visibility, obscured only by the Factor 50 running off my forehead and into my eyes. Even still, I should have been more than able to figure out that standing at 1086m with a point further east along the ridge marked on my OS as being at 1129m meant that I was not at the summit of An Riabhachan. I clearly suspected as much as I wandered a short distance eastwards before once again consulting the OS sheet AND the downloaded walk description on my phone. I can only assume that the extreme fatigue and effects of the heat meant that reading the description and trying to apply it in reverse, as I was doing, was too much for my remaining few unfried brain cells, because I promptly walked off to the south and descended the broad nose of Sron na Frithe before picking up the track on the other side of the Allt Socach that led me back to the side of the Loch at my earlier lunch spot.

Sun beginning to dip behind An Socach from what is definitely NOT THE SUMMIT (1086m ya idiot!!!) of An Riabhachan

An Riabhachan SUMMIT (1129m ya idiot!!!) with Sgurr na Lapaich behind

Ignorance is bliss!

Back down on the loch side path, still blissfully and to be honest, luckily, unaware of my screw-up, I tucked in at the back of the procession with the four blokes from earlier just ahead of me and the two blokes with the collie just ahead of them. I quickly caught them up and powered ahead of them, shaving almost 40 minutes of the time it had taken me earlier to do the reverse. Then again, they had all done four Munros whereas I had only done THE ONE!!!

I almost caught up with the solo female walker just before getting back to the car park where she jumped into her car and sped off and I went the short distance down the road to get my car and bring it up to the now much quieter car park before setting the tent up for the night below the dam wall on practically the exact same patch of grass to the very square centimetre that I had occupied on a wild and windy night almost 3 years ago.

userroute (1).gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

The full horror of the route I took!!!

FOOTNOTE

I guess Kev and I will at some point get round to planning a wild camp in the upper reaches of Glen Strathfarrar to deal with that unfortunate and awkward red balloon by the name of An Riabhachan. Maybe then, standing at the SUMMIT, I will be able to look across to the west, shake my head and give a little wry smile to myself........

[rockhopper]

As they say MrD, "everyday's a school day". Good on you for writing it up. I'm sure most of us have done something similar in the past. On the upside, you have a reason to go back and spend more time there - cheers

[Gordie12]

Looks like your brain could still be fried Graeme - 1m of climbing?

Luna seems to have enjoyed herself even if this left you frustrated.

Having climbed the wrong hill in the past I'm not going to extract the "P" from someone who was on the correct hill just failed the quite important bit of knowing where the top was

[litljortindan]

Error regardless still looks a good route.

[Sunset tripper]

I had a laugh reading that. I wonder how many of us have done similar but never realised the mistake and remain blissfully unaware.
No big deal Graeme. Looked like a fine day out and you were never in any trouble. The irony is, if it was really poor conditions, visibility etc. you would almost certainly have made the top.

I have never fancied the walk along the loch there or the boat trip. An Riabhachan is the only one of the Mullardoch lot I haven't been up. We did An Socach from Killilan on its own also.

Like your idea, I have plans to do it from Strathfarrar. I believe you can still take the car up and over the 2 dams which makes it a fairly easy day trip from Inverness and could tag on Sgùrr na Lapaich also if I'm feeling fit.
If you are planning camping up there somewhere...I think taking the car up the Glen is frowned upon.

I will get round to it someday but there are always better options nearby for me.....and logistically easier too.

All the best.

[weaselmaster]

We read your report near the summit of Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill on Saturday for a bit of light relief. Allison says you're a fanny! She did ask if you ever just go out and climb a Munro without experiencing some sort of drama...it did give us a laugh though. An Riabhachan isn't the easiest one to have left - I think you should just go for the 12 Mullardochs and get it out the way
I can sympathise with the effects of walking in the sweltering sun though - not to my liking either

[Border Reiver]

I remember, way back some 30 odd years ago, I was at the Southerly summit of Beinn a Chroin, on my way back to the car, when I got talking to another walker. He had climbed the hill the previous day in thick cloud and only found out back at home that the true summit was only a short distance away to the North and he had missed it. So he wasn't going to cheat and he returned 24 hrs later to bag the true summit. Real dedication.

[HalfManHalfTitanium]

I'm just totally impressed that you climbed these remote monsters on such a hot day!

It makes me feel parched and tired just looking at those photos.

I did a navigational schoolboy error once, when walking up Scafell Pike from Borrowdale. There are two "bumps" before the summit, Ill Crag and Broad Crag. It was a whiteout and snow had covered the path. So after crossing Ill Crag, going down a dip and then reaching the uphill bit on Broad Crag, I checked the map and compass and then walked happily ahead, keeping the boulders on my right. Nothing could go wrong now.

After a while, I came to another dip and went uphill, thinking it was the final slope of Scafell Pike. I was encouraged by some footsteps in the snow that had appeared. Must be nearly there!

But the slope was not quite how I remembered it - not as steep and rocky. So I checked the compass again.

Mmm. I was walking in the opposite direction, and re-ascending Ill Crag. By keeping the boulders on my right, I had completely circled Broad Crag and rejoined my outward route. The footsteps were my own.

Tim

[kevsbald]

That’s an extreme way of saying I’ll join you on An Riabhachain for your last Munro

[EmmaKTunskeen]

I was watching my feet on descending Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill on Saturday, and about to set off in the wrong direction (towards Meall Garbh) when I saw two people on the Càrn Dearg ridge (probably Weaselmaster and Allison - have you got orange waterproofs?). Did a double take as I realised they weren't 'weirdly over there' but on the ridge I was meant to be aiming for.

[Backpacker]

I was watching my feet on descending Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill on Saturday, and about to set off in the wrong direction (towards Meall Garbh) when I saw two people on the Càrn Dearg ridge (probably Weaselmaster and Allison - have you got orange waterproofs?). Did a double take as I realised they weren't 'weirdly over there' but on the ridge I was meant to be aiming for.

That descent did require a bit of head scratching when I did it

[weaselmaster]

I was watching my feet on descending Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill on Saturday, and about to set off in the wrong direction (towards Meall Garbh) when I saw two people on the Càrn Dearg ridge (probably Weaselmaster and Allison - have you got orange waterproofs?). Did a double take as I realised they weren't 'weirdly over there' but on the ridge I was meant to be aiming for.

My- Mhic Dhughaill must have been a busy hill on Saturday! We don’t have orange waterproofs and were approaching over Meall Garbh anyway. They must have been the elusive couple of folk lost in the mist that I expected to meet, but didn’t, at the summit

[EmmaKTunskeen]

They must have been the elusive couple of folk lost in the mist that I expected to meet, but didn’t, at the summit

Must have been. I've read your excellent report now - wow, you're quick at getting them done!

[old danensian]

An entertaining and suitably self-deprecating cracker there Graeme - good job Luna can't read or she'd be worried about getting home safely.

Schoolboy errors eh! I seem to recall coming off Beinn a Chrulaiste one claggy December Sunday and wondering why we could see the Blackwater and not the A82 - now - can I remember who I was with that day?

OD

[dogplodder]

A brilliant description of fried brain syndrome in the Mullardochs. These hills do strange things to us and if you'd not recorded your route you may never have known what you'd done!

Bright side is you can now look forward to a future foray with Kev.