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I picked my friend up at 4am and left Saltcoats for what turned out to be my toughest assignment to date, the Ring of Steall.
It was a massive day out and really tested my fitness levels. Kudos to the people who can extend and take in the additional six other Mamores in one outing - four was enough for me on this occasion.
The benefits of leaving so early and on a midweek day meant we got a dream passage along ‘that’ stretch of road up the west of Loch Lomond and this continued all the way up to the end of Glen Nevis car park. Empty roads and no HGV or agricultural vehicles to delay our planned early start. Bliss.
As we got out car to sort out our rucksacks it was midge central. I got back inside to finalise what I was taken and some had already taken up residence as I closed the door. No point suffering that, so hurriedly got things in order and made tracks.
We got out and took a right and made our way out and round towards the Steall falls.
You can hear the water thundering down long before they come into view. Some people had pitched up tents and would’ve benefitted from the spectacular view on offer to wake up to.
The first real obstacle of the day was the steel-wired bridge which I went first on. My friend Jordan recorded the full 2minutes of myself to mount and cross it. I’m guessing he hoped to perhaps send it into You’ve Been Framed (if that’s still a thing). Thankfully got over incident free, as did he.
Heading on to the lower section of Steall Falls, we took a brief survey of the best area to cross, we crossed where the boulders married up to the visible path at the other side before heading onto bog central. My right boot got embroiled in a brief tug-of-war in the mud (thankfully my trekking poles kept me upright) before heading on and turning up right onto the path and striking uphill.
We got up to the landslide and checked the weather out. The Ben Nevis massif behing us had some lingering cloud while the wind blowing in from the west was accompanied with a light shower.
We trudged on and when the path meandered round to take a more direct route to An Gearanach’s summit a hillwalker was walking down and we had a chat. He complained that his tent had got blown over during the night in attempt to do all ten of the Mamores range, because the weather wasn’t looking great his plan was aborted and headed back down. We trudged on with a play it by ear attitude and at the 900m mark, the summit had a faint outline due to cloud conditions.
We took a photo and headed south to the isosceles peak of An Garbhanach where the fun started…
- An Garbhanach
The path was fine but there came a point when three bypass paths were visible on the left at varying heights. Having looked at the crest, it looked difficult so tried and backtracked while assessing the others which seemed to come to an abrupt halt with a severe drop below. Clambering up the slabs looked an option but there was a degree of apprehension. The higher one we settled on and nestled in the slab grooves and weaved our way up through after some uncertainty and back onto the crest - some Steally determination required. On the way back down there was more scrambling with slight exposure; eroded in places too starting at the left initially before cutting through the ridge and some more awkward downhill descent before the path levelled out again.
- On the way down
- Looking back
I was glad the ascent up to Stob Choire a’Chairn was fairly straightforward and was emboldened now the weather had improved markedly; although, Jordan’s obsession with the devil’s ridge (if you were playing that drinking game where you take a shot everytime he mentioned that I wouldn’t get over the wire bridge!) kept gnawing away at me.
Not a great deal of time spent at the summit and headed on to Am Bodach.
On the way back up to the small peak on the way up, we tucked into the left for a break and had lunch sheltering from the constant wind coming in from the west. We found a suitable place that wasn’t abundant with sheep droppings looking onto Coire a’Chairn and had lunch.
Up and over before we made the final 200m ascent to Am Bodach. I found this part pretty taxing. It was very sustained and at times, in direct glare of the sun, loose ground underfoot constant zig-zagging requiring hands for balance. Lead-legged, I stopped not far from the summit and ditched the fleece and was glad to get that section over with.
My fitness was flagging and was glad to be going back down for a spell.
We spoke to a couple of individuals separately and caught a breather. Asked them their route which was reciprocated, typical mountain chat. A greybeard advised us he had done the devil’s ridge on a previous outing and advised caution with the wind. I kept this in mind.
The cloud was clearing up and Big Ben had his eye on us now that Mother Nature had given him the nod.
- Ben Nevis & the CMD arete
The path up to Sgurr an Lubhair was easy enough and we didn’t really stop. I had to change my base layer but was holding off for some respite from the wind before doing so. It never materialised so held off until we reached the point after marked 924 in the map before doing so.
Galvanised with refreshments and a change into my recently purchased cobalt blue baselayer, it was time to tackle the last quartet in the Ring of Steall. So on we went…
It went okay and error free but at the Stob Choire a’Mhail the fun started, again.
- The path immediately after this is precipitous & exposed. Taking photos was the last thing on my mind
Right on the crest now with death drops either side I highlighted to Jordan my concern of the unrelenting wind blowing in from our left which we were directly exposed too. I had concerns of a fatigue-induced slip/fall and we weren’t taking any chances of a rogue gust blowing us off course so we got down and manoeuvred by going foot first and using hands and motioned forward til we got off this exposed section of the ridge. We must’ve looked like amateurs and I wanted to get photos of being on it but all my energy was channeled into sheer concentration. Jordan actually shouted ‘forget the Ring of Steall, you need a ringpiece of steel to negotiate this section’. Can’t beat a bit of type2 fun I suppose!
- Coming off devil’s ridge
We took the bypass now on our left at the bad step and the climb up was easy as it had good hand and footholds. Beyond that was a slab where the grooves were generous and this was negotiated easily before the final ascent proper to Sgurr a’Mhaim.
- Final summit of the day
It was met with relief and unalloyed joy at the summit cairn. I got a summit photo of Jordan with Nevis in the background, the size of the mountain reflected the scale of the task at hand today, a nice symmetry.
We took the NE descent and I gave my mate one of the trekking poles for support from here to the carpark.
- Messing on the way down
The walk out is sooo long. I should’ve transferred onto the road rather than take the path to Paddy’s bridge, the road was that busy that I probably could’ve hitched a ride on the busy road to the carpark for the 1.5mile trip as my legs were tired - schoolboy error.
We stopped off at Fort William for a sit in at the fish and chip shop (a staple when I’m in this part of the country!) before taking the drive back down to the ‘Shire. The sun was pleasant as it shone along Glencoe, the Crianlarich hills, all the way through Beith and North Ayrshire. There were some banging tunes on the regional radio stations and that got us hyped up, longing just to go out for a few beers and stretch the day and our enjoyment out that little bit more. It was such a pleasant summer’s evening.
Both of us were tired and back at work the next day though. It was memorable and worth booking the day off for.
Gold standard day on the hills!