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This was a rare 'calm before the storm' day, with hurricane-force winds and heavy rain dominating the horizon for the next couple of days. Today though, it was calm and beautifully clear in the morning, with the signs of the bad weather to come being signalled by clouds and snow flurries arriving around lunchtime. This was pretty much a perfect round to savour the last of the weather window and get out before the rains and wind came in.
- The Grey Mare's Tail waterfall just about visible through the trees on the ascent from the car park (about 0840)
- Serene-looking Loch Leven as I climbed out of the treeline
- The well-trod path up to the Coire an Lochain, with Sgurr Eilde Beag on the left
- The Allt Coire nan Laogh, which was quite full and a bit tricky to get across
- Loch Eilde Mor came into view as I gained height, which looked spectacular in the morning light and with views to the horizon
- First views of Sgurr Eilde Mor as I came up into the Coire an Lochain
- Coire an Lochain, looking towards the Grey Corries, with Binnein Beag on the left and Sgurr Eilde Mor on the right
- Such a beautiful scene, but that, I believe, is a 'Mackerel Sky' and a sign of the storm to come, if you're atuned to that sort of thing
- Sgurr Eilde Mor, also under a Mackerel Sky
- Binnein Beag, with the Nevis range in the background
- Looking towards Mordor...no, Coire an Lochain and then Loch Eilde Mor, with the Blackwater Reservoir beyond
- The final, very steep and badly eroded section of the way up Sgurr Eilde Mor detracts a bit from what is otherwise an enjoyable route up
- The summit cairn of Sgurr Eilde Mor
- View NW towards Ben Nevis, with Binnein Mor (left) and Binnen Beag (right) in the foreground
- The stalker's path (well I assume it is a stalker's path) up the northern coire of Sgurr Eilde Beag is excellent, with the well-designed switchbacks making the steep headwall of the coire a relatively easy undertaking
- On the switchbacks, looking down the Coire a' Bhinnein
- The minor summit of Binnein Mor, I can't see a name for it, looking back towards Sgurr Eilde Mor and Sgurr Eilde Beag
- And along the ridgeline towards Na Gruagaichean
- Looking back along the pleasantly airy scramble up the final ridge to Na Gruagaichean
- Summit of Na Gruagaichean with Loch Leven in the background
- There is a steep, loose gravelly section just below the summit that needed care in the descent
- After seeing it from above, I decided to come straight down from the bealach into the Coire na Ba, here looking back up at the bealach. It is a steep grassy slope with no obvious path, but it saves a steep climb and about a km of walking around on the marked path, so worth the shortcut I think
- The cloud was descending onto the tops by the time I got into the upper coire, here looking up into Coire a Bhodaich below Am Bodach
- It was very wet underfoot in places in the woods in the lower part of the coire and I made a bit of a tactical blunder, losing the path for a while, so it was a long descent back to Kinlochleven
The heavy rains arrived in the night and Loch Leven was in turmoil as I left the next day, already a very different place to when I arrived, and this storm lasted for two more days before I could get out again. It's interesting to look back and see the (probably obvious) signs of the coming storm, that we thankfully don't have to rely on anymore! A lovely weather window day on eastern two of the Mamores.