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It's getting to that point where I am now looking to see what summits I've got left and what the most efficient way of doing them would be. Can get a bit tiresome, but - in pursuit of the greater goal, needs done. I knew there were 4 hills up near Cannich which would suit a not-very-exertive weekend- just the long drive up there to get them. Two Corbetts: Beinn a'Bha'ach Ard and Sgurr na Diollaid; two Grahams, Beinn a'Mheadhoin in Affric and Càrn Gorm just beside Cannich. They all ended up being done was single hills, although I had come up with a route to link three of them in what might have been a nice jaunt in better weather.
Possible route...
Anyway, we had a trouble free drive up on Thursday night, having to delay our tea until we reached the shores of Loch Lochy as we had to be through the roadworks at Onich before they shut the road at the unreasonably early time of 7pm. I couldn't really decide what order to do the hills in and in the end chose Diollaid first, meaning that we drove along Glen Cannich and found a spot to pitch, in the dark and in the light rain, near the bridge at Dalriach. A lot of the ground near the bridge is flat but very stony underneath, but we were fortunate to find a suitable spot. Only one car went by all night, quiet but for the splashings of the river and the constant patter of rain.
IMG_1132 by
Al, on Flickr
The forecast had predicted heavy rain til 8am, so there was no point in getting up early. When we did look out the tent we saw that much of last night's rain was now snow on the hills...down to maybe 450m. As we were packing away the tent we saw a guy drive up to the start of the walk, get out and get organised very quickly and set off up the hill with his two collies. Although his footprints were useful , we didn't catch up with him and he came back over some of the bumps to the west. When we got going ourselves, the first thing we noticed is that there's now a path to follow most of the way up Diollaid - don't remember that being the case previously and speaks of the increasing popularity of Corbetts.
We had a path to follow, then when it came time to reach the snow, we had footprints - human and canine - to follow. Can't get easier than that. As we neared the summit, the snow was quite thick - sticky new stuff that was just perfect for making snowballs. And sticking to your poles. We arrived at the rocky summit tor - yes the true summit is the central tor, not the grassy knoll over to the west (although I went to them both, as you do) You could just see down to Loch Beannacharan through the clag - pity the views weren't better as it's an excellent central point to see the wonders of the surrounding mountainscape. We followed our prints back to the car, slipping rather frequently on the wet snow, Allison banging her hip on a boulder during one trip.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
There was time enough to get another hill done - the nice quick Graham down Glen Affric. That would also mean that we could camp down there afterwards. Sun was shining as we drove the windy roads down the glen, listening to The Frenz Experiment by The Fall and reckoning that "Dog Falls" sounded like a typical Fall song title as we drove past. Parked in the large Forestry Commission parking area, clocked the no overnight parking/no camping sign and set off through the woods on a way marked track which joins with the main track going "To The Hills". There's a large cairn just after the end of the tree line and an ATV track that goes most of the way up a'Mheadhoin. Again, this is new from the last time we were up this way. The Mullardoch hills looked as if they still had a proper amount of snow on them, unlike our little hill which had none. We only had a short bit of trackless ground up the final section of the hill, on short grass/heather, so an easy Graham becomes even easier.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Beinn a'Mheadhoin
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Al, on Flickr
We took the same route down, as you do, and reached the car. Decided to drive a little bit west to a very nice camp spot, which was fortunately vacant. Quite a few cars and campers around in the car parks, though didn't see anyone else camping. The forecast was for a cold night, down to -2 at sea level. We went for a little wander around the headland after our meal, then headed into the tent when our fingers started to get too cold. A cold night it was - both the inside and outside of the tent was frozen by morning, However, a bright and warm sun soon had the ice in retreat. I'd been lying awake wondering if we should ditch our plans and go and do Tom & Toll in good looking winter conditions, just for the thrill of it, but sense prevailed. We packed our gear away and drove back up to Cannich, with Carn Gorm our next port of call. Did see the rescue copter heading low along Glen Affric...
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Morning view
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Al, on Flickr
If Id been paying attention I'd have done this hill from another start point - like Struy - but as it was we just went up the same way as we'd done twice previously. Allison wasn't feeling well, and wasn't able to enjoy to the full the rather pleasant sunshine, sunny enough for us both to have donned our sunglasses. The route follows a clear ATV track until that disappears, then follows your nose up to the summit. Great views of the southern Mullardochs, especially Beinn Fhionnlaidh, and of Diollaid. The east wind caught us at the summit, where it was still very chilly, but we had our lunch there and enjoyed the view. We took more or less the same route back down, arriving at the car at something to 3pm
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Al, on Flickr
Loch Mullardoch
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Al, on Flickr
Diollaid
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Al, on Flickr
Carn Gorm summit
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Beinn a'bha'ach Ard
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Al, on Flickr
Time to head up to Strathfarrar for our last hill, Beinn na Bha'ach Ard. We didn't have time to climb it today, but I thought we could walk in a bit and camp. I had considered doing the WH loop and seeing if there was anywhere to camp near Loch na Beiste - the option of high camping along the plateau rather scuppered by the snow there. In the end I decided we'd walk in to Culligran power station and hopefully find something on our way up there, leave the tent up in the morning and just head up and back by the same route. We came to a spot just by the 155m spot height that suited us well (although the other spot I'd eyeballed from the map a bit further to the west where there's a 160m ring contour by the river would have been fine too). There were a number of anthills about, but we hoped that the ants were still in winter hibernation mode and wouldn't seek to invade the tent. Sat outside having our Huel and turned in fairly early.
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Al, on Flickr
The night was quiet (apart from the very distant hum of the power station and some blood curdling cries of something being eaten by something bigger, that I missed). Having gone to sleep early I was annoyed to wake up at ten past 8 (still Saturday evening) - I was sure it would be midnight at least. But it wasn't and sleep didn't come back making it a very long night. My neck was playing up, giving me a headache and I even had a dream in which I had a sore neck, so there was no escaping it. One miserable night! I wasn't feeling very well either in the morning, with nausea, headache and sore neck. Never being one to catastrophes, I reckoned viral meningitis, though the relative absence of photophobia did make this unlikely. We left most of the kit in situ and set off along a stalker's track, aiming to join the WH route in a wee bit. I managed to take the wrong branch of the track (assuming the one going west actually exists) and we found ourselves going up into Coire na Muic. Lots of pigs around this part of the country, at least in the past. Decided we should just press on rather than have the irritation of turning back, and I'd suggest this is quite a good way up the hill. For one thing, the ATV track goes on further than it's marked on the map, and the terrain up Coire an Fheadain is better than that on the west side of the hill. We found that most of Friday's snow had melted, leaving us with no snowy obstacles. Clag was in place as we went up the last couple of hundred metres, but for once it cleared as we sat at the top having an early lunch. We spent a long time up there trying to identify as many peaks as we could - there are just so many. Slioch and Fionn Bheinn form two good reference points.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Walking down from the summit
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Al, on Flickr
It had been very cold in the wind at the summit, but as we came down hill towards the track it was a beautiful spring day. A gang of frogs were hopping across the track - when we drew level with them they flattened themselves against the road surface, as if that made them any harder to see. Hairy caterpillars patrolled up and down the track. We returned to the tent, packed everything up and set back off to the car. As we passed Culligran cottages the air was alive with a squadron of chaffinches who flew to the trees on either side of the track and tweeted so loudly as we went by that it was amazing to think that such small birds could produce such a volume of sound.
