Cloudy Day on Liathach

[davierobbo]

Setting off on the Friday afternoon, my pal Sandy Tosh and I headed north with the plan of climbing the mighty Liathach the following day. A wee pit stop in Aviemore for a chippy tea broke up the long drive towards Torridon Youth Hostel which was our base for the night. It was pitch black when we arrived so we could not see the mountain as we drove past, but we knew we had a big undertaking ahead of us in the morning. The weather forecast was good so we had a quick beer and went to bed early as we planned to be out on the hill at 6am.

The forecast was wrong. At 6am, the rain was coming down and the cloud base was low. Decisions, decisions. Liathach is a technical mountain. There are varying degrees of scrambling (Scrambling is the territory that lies between hill-walking and rock climbing. Scrambling requires you to ascend a mountain or a hill using your hands to climb short sections of steep ground: hence it's definitely more than hill-walking), which makes for a tricky day out, especially in the wet. We headed to the start point and waited for the daylight to come in. As it did, the rain stopped. Boots on, off we go!
It’s was a steady start for the first wee while, making our way up beside the Allt an Doire Ghairbh stream before crossing it and climbing steeply up the other side. Our first rest was soon after crossing the stream and this is when I realised I had left the car lights on. Off I went back down to the car to switch the lights off and climbed back up to where Sandy was waiting for me. A great start to the day, I’m sure you will agree.

Once I had caught my breath, we were on our way again. A wee bit of easy scrambling had us heading into Toll a’ Meitheach corrie before heading over to the right and some more scrambling over and through some large lumps of sandstone. Soon we reached the ridgeline but the hard work still lay ahead. Usually from here the views across Glen Torridon are spectacular. Unfortunately for us, the low cloud hampered our view. We headed along the ridge heading for the summits of the first Munro of the day – Spidean a’Coire Leith. The path was good and we soon reached the boulder laden lower summit. After a quick chat with some fellow climbers, we dropped slightly before climbing to the top of Spidean a’Coire Leith, standing at 1055m.

Again, this summit was covered with boulders but despite being wet, there was good grip on the rock and we felt confident about the day ahead. The rain had started again but did not last long. Now the real fun was about to begin……..
From the summit of Spidean a’Coire Leith, we should have had a great view along the ridge to the famous Am Fasarinen Pinnacles. These pinnacles involve some serious scrambling and are very exposed. A slip or a fall here could have nasty consequences. We couldn’t see much at all so headed down from the summit towards the first pinnacle. Climbing up and over the five pinnacles can be avoided by way of a bypass path. This path however traverses a narrow, exposed path and is very eroded. On reaching the point where the path split, Sandy and I had a decision to make. Do we climb over the pinnacles or take the bypass route? We both felt confident that climbing the pinnacles was best. The rock was giving good grip and the bypass route did not sound like a safer option. Having consulted the map, we could drop onto the bypass route in-between any of the pinnacles, should we feel the need.

Off we went up the first pinnacle and in no time were on the top. Still no views but having climbed the first one, we knew we could do them all. We carried on and took turns picking routes and spotting grips and footholds for each other. It was great fun and in no time, we were coming down off the last pinnacle and the cloud was starting to break. We could see our next target, the second Munro of the day - Mullach an Rathain. This was much easier going and a return to hillwalking, rather than scrambling. We were soon on the summit at 1023m and were treated to views north and west of the mountain. This was Sandy’s 50th Munro and my 97th. Loch Torridon came into view and we treated ourselves to a bite to eat and a drink while taking in the spectacular views.

With a steep descent and a long drive home ahead, we were soon on our way again. The descent was hard going on the legs. Scree and earth made walking tricky and this part of the day was verging on unpleasant but what goes up, must come down. The path improved further down but there were a few little scrambles to negotiate before reaching the road again, 2km from our start point. We bumped into a couple coming off the hill and had hoped the campervan parked down at the road was theirs and they could give us a lift back to the car. Unfortunately, they had the same hopes as us!! In the end, the four of us trudged our way back along the tarmac road to the start point.

Sandy and I were elated to have climbed a mountain as big and as rugged as Liathach. We were both pushed outside our comfort zones but always felt safe and secure. I’m sure I speak for us both when I say that we had reservations regarding the scrambling elements but we tackled these head on and completed the traverse in good time and without incident. The weather could have been kinder but, it’s Scotland so we always hope for the best and plan for the worst. Munro 100 is on the horizon for me so planning for the next big adventure is well under way, along with a traverse of the famous Cuillin Ridge on Skye in May 2024.