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Around half 7 in the morning, me and three others (Magnus, Gabriele, and Jamie) arrived at the Grey Mares car park in Kinlochleven. Part of our weekend meet with the Glasgow University Mountaineering club, the plan was to do the easternmost 4 of the 10 Mamores munros, using a route that was largely formed from two respective Walkhighlands routes, but with Sgùrr Èilde Mòr instead being approached from the south, and Binnein Beag and Binnein Mòr being linked relatively directly to merge the routes. The route was inspired by past walk reports, as well as from another GUMC member who had done the route nearly a year before.
Sgùrr Èilde Mòr and Binnein Beag
- First views back to Loch Leven, with Beinn a' Bheithir and the Pap of Glencoe.
The four of us set off at 07:40 and took the intended path out of the Kinlochleven forests and up the side of Meall an Doire Dharaich. The weather was clear skies, with clouds forecast for the afternoon time, so we were able to properly appreciate the sunrise, as well as Loch Leven as it came more into view. We made it past the side of Sgor Eilde Beag and started seeing Sgùrr Èilde Mòr ahead of us around 09:20, making our way over to its south end.
- The sunrise over the hills, with Sgor Eilde Beag ahead.
- Sgùrr Èilde Mòr comes into view
- Climbing up Sgùrr Èilde Mòr
Once it felt like time, we cut straight up the south side of the munro, enjoying a short scramble over rocks before we got to the summit at around 10:05. Views extended south towards Glen Coe and beyond; north towards the Nevis range and Loch Lochy, east towards Corrour, the Ben Alder range and across Rannoch Moor and over to the Schiehallion; and west over to the rest of the Mamores range.
- The Sgùrr Èilde Mòr summit
- Onwards to Binnein Beag
After a short break, our group made down the west side of Sgùrr Èilde Mòr, which proved slippy at a couple points. We then joined the path going over to Binnein Beag and reached the bottom of it at about 11:22. This munro was harder than it had appeared from afar, and we saw a steep ascent over rocks until we reached the top at 11:48. The views of Ben Nevis were much nicer at this point. The hard ascent had made Gabriele consider bailing back to Kinlochleven, but we allowed a longer break to recover better.
- The Binnein Beag summit, with Binnein Mòr in the background.
- Ben Nevis
Binnein Mòr and Na Gruagaichean
- The Binnein Mòr corrie that we entered, the scrambling route being the left ridge.
The four of us soon made back down to Binnein Beag's base and took another short rest before beginning towards Binnein Mòr. The original plan was to go up the corrie and join the north ridge further up, but Gabriele, who was fully back on board with the final two munros, suggested taking the rocky ridge to the left of the corrie and scrambling to the top. Our group took up the challenge and ascended to the base of the rocky part. The first parts of the scramble were very sketchy with the slippy moss and large rock chunks, making some traversing very dangerous for myself especially.
- Looking back to Binnein Beag
The next part of the scramble was easier, making for a very, very fun traverse the rest of the way up Binnein Mòr. We stopped near the top ridge for around 10 minutes to admire the view down to Binnein Beag and other spots before finally doing the rest of the ascent, reading the summit at around 14:00. The weather had gotten cloudier by this point, but we enjoyed a rest at the Mamores' highest point before continuing down the ridge towards Na Gruagaichean, the final munro.
- The final ridge to Binnein Mòr
- The Binnein Mòr summit
- The ridge to Na Gruagaichean
Approaching the south top of Binnein Mòr, I called for another break to eat some snacks, as I was feeling more worn than I had expected from the scrambling. Worse still, I hurt my knee continuing along the ridge towards Na Gruagaichean, but was able to continue as normal after giving it a few minutes to rest. Despite the minor hindrances, the ridge was an easy traverse, and we reached the final munro summit around 14:50.
- The Na Gruagaichean summit
The descentWhile the descent route seemed straight forward on the mapped route we had observed beforehand, it proved to be very hard for us to track when we began down the south ridge of Na Gruagaichean. Once our group started making south west, we lost sight of any route and resorted to a rather tedious off-piste descent across the heather until we got to a more established road that connected us to our final path back to Kinlochleven. The four of us got back to the carpark at 17:07 and celebrated back at Ballachulish where we were staying. Our route had truly been a fine integration of paths, rocks, bogs, and heather.
- The ridge down
- Kinlochleven comes into view again
- The pathless descent