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Some days are brilliant, this wasn't one of them. It wasn't a disaster, but I'm very aware that disasters rarely just happen, they are more often accumulations of small things that didn't go quite to plan, with the disaster being the end result. So I got away with this one, but lessons have been learnt (or I have been reminded). The small things that went wrong in order of my appreciating them:
1) I forgot my trekking poles
2) 2.6 km of my planned cycle-in couldn't be cycled and was very boggy, so I had to walk a lot further
3) A bridge I was aiming to cross turned out to be un-crossable, wasting time finding a crossing
4) The weather was hard to call from the forecast, but went from marginal to very unpleasant throughout the day, without a clear cut-off, but just deteriorating without really being noticed
5) I missed the path descending Stob Choire Claurigh, taking a lot of effort to negotiate the boulder fields
6) I realised I wasn't going to make the ascent of Stob Ban too late, so I'd already descended nearly 400m from Stob Choire Claruigh to the bealach before deciding to turn around,meaning I had to climb back up the same way, which was a lot of demoralising wasted effort (and time)
7) Overall I really under-estimated the ascent and distance (over 36 k with the cycle ride) of the planned round, especially as I was already tired from the day before.
It wasn't a disaster - I managed most of it and enjoyed quite a lot of it - discovering forgotten tramway bridges and I always get a grim satisfaction out of being in wild places in wild weather, but the fact that I used most of the stuff out of my 'emergency kit' bag and the time taken (over 10 hours) indicates that there wasn't a lot left in reserve so I'm hoping/planning not to repeat these errors, at least not all at once!
The route included a ~7km cycle-in along the forestry tracks from the Nevis Range Mountain Resort in Torlundy, where I stashed the bike in the woods to begin the climb.
- The first problem (after forgetting my trekking poles) - there is supposed to be a path through this, unfortunately completely overgrown and very boggy
- The path improved a lot when I reached the banks of the Cour, and the weather looks quite promising up on the Grey Corries
- Unfortunately the bridge I was intending to cross turned out to be this, which looks like something out of a health and safety educational video - even the 'keep off' sign had rotted and fallen down. I ended up crossing fairly easily just below the bridge
- Some beautiful signposting - this indicating the route I had planned back down off the Grey Corries, rather than the way up. But what still puzzles me is how on earth you would get to Aonach Mor in that direction (east)?
- Another bridge on the old tramway - this one looking straight up like something out of the Wild West
- It was a long hard pull up the open moorland above the dam on the Allt Choimhlidh but still the weather looking fairly promising
- Higher up the weather starting to look a bit more threatening
- But then with brightening periods, just as forecast
- Hmmm... maybe
- By the time I got onto the final boulder slopes of Stob Choire Claurigh, it was definitely the grey corries
- Stob Choire Claurigh
- It was a long and tricky descent over the boulder fields down to the bealach because I missed the descent path in the clag, so don't use the descent route on the GPX file as a guide! Here looking up to Stob Ban from the bealach. Over lunch I had time to think about timings and realised that I wasn't going to make the round - either climb Stob Ban and take the quickest route home, or miss it out and maybe have enough left to complete the most of the Grey Corries ridge - I decided on the latter, with another decision to make by the time I had got back up the long haul to Stob Choire Claurigh
- After finding the path in the ascent, the re-ascent of Stob Choire Claurige wasn't as bad as I'd imagined, so I decided to press on and complete the Grey Corries ridge, as there wasn't a lot in it either way. However the weather had really deteriorated by now with ~30mph winds and stinging rain. Unfortunately this had crept up on me a bit, so I was soaked by the time I got all my foul weather gear out and on, Here a part of the ridge that was sheltered to sort out gear and get some food.
- Summit of Stob Coire an Laoigh, The rain was just too pelting to get the camera out anywhere else, though there were plenty of atmospheric (if quite short) views along the ridge. The descent of Stob Coire Easain to the north was a long and mind-numbing one, with a lot of rain and a couple of slides down the steep wet bog and grass,
- I got back to the bridge crossing at dusk and still had about 3k to go through the woods in the dark, which was challenging even with a head torch, and then about 7k cycle, also in the rain, not the most pleasant experiences
Overall then, not the best of days out, and a good reminder to be more circumspect with the planning for late Autumn. It is a tough time to be out on the hills, when it it cold enough to get flurries of snow and hail, but also wet enough to make every step a challenge and soak you to the bone (especially if you're too slow to get the gear out on time). No time to be winging it!
