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a couple of preoccupations at the moment - getting into shape before our HebWay walk, which is only 2 weeks away now, and ticking off remaining summits in my list. Weather didn't seem to be up to much good this weekend - I decided to head to Ardgour and get the four summits I needed there, plus the option of Beinn na h-Uamha for Allison, then maybe Sgorr a'Choise in Glencoe on the way home. It looked, midweek, like it was going to be a wet few days - the winds didn't seem to be a particular issue when I was planning things... The only report I could find on Beinn Bheag/Sgorr Mhic Eacharna from Glen Gour was an oldie by Basscadet, which included Seana and Leithy scrambling up rock faces. As you'd expect
We were hoping to avoid such pursuits.
We headed up to the Corran Ferry on Thursday night, pleased to be arriving when it was still light now that the clocks have gone forward. By that time I knew that Storm Kathleen was going to be visiting us, as well as a dose of deep snow overnight. My intention was to do the 3 Grahams south of the River Gour on Friday, when the winds were less fierce, but I wasn't sure how my other plans might be affected. We parked up at the bridge and set off for a short walk in to find a pitch spot - Seana had recommended a grassy spot beside the Allt a'Choire Leith, which suited our purposes well. No sign of the bull, or indeed of any cattle, despite the warning on the gatepost.
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Al, on Flickr
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Evening
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Note the difference in the morning...
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It was a completely still evening, not a ripple on the loch, the kind of night midges dream about. We set up and had a good night's rest, despite almost continual rain. We emerged at a brief dry spell to find the hills covered with snow from around 500m up. The wind wa warm and strong and the tent was almost dried off right away. We had a couple of kms to walk up the glen before turning south at the large sheepfold. There's a gate in the deer fence behind the fold and a track - stony initially, then ATV grassy, that essentially follows the Allt an Fhaing into the glen between Beinn Leamhain and Sgorr Mhic Earcharna. At an obvious kink in the deer fence we climbed over and followed something of a deer path steeply up by the old fenceposts. Nothing tricky and quite a pleasant way up this hill, which we've done previously with a south approach as part of a horseshoe with Garbh Bheinn.
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Al, on Flickr
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We met soft, slippy snow at around 450m as we continued upwards to the summit. Wind wasn't bad, visibility poor though. Another line of old fence posts headed us in the right direction for Bheinn Bheag. Two down, one to go. Make sure to bear left after the 658m top or you end up heading towards a gully. Then it was down to Bealach Feith 'n Amean which I remembered as being steep, but which was alright, apart from Allison slipping when we came to a halt and twisting her leg, hopefully not with persisting consequences.
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We'd done the next part of the circuit before, when we did Sgurr na Cnamh then Garbh Bheinn, camping by Loch na Dearcag. It's boggy, haggy ground, not great when in clag. Not a long distance, thankfully. My thoughts turned now to the descent to Glen Gour from Sgurr na Cnamh - our last attempt at descent, down Doire nan Dearcag, was a bit of a nightmare of slab and crag, and that was in good visibility. What would it be like dropping down Glac nam Cnamh in clag? Allison was struggling with low energy, as I got to the summit of Cnamh and waited on her. She said she'd like to take the direct route down. I said she might just be doing that.
Cnamh
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Gully - looking up
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And looking down
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We continued on a little past the summit prominence and noticed a grassy floored descent - steep but with plenty evidence the deer make use of it, always a bonus. In fact it was a pretty good descent route - some bouldery bits higher up, mostly grass lower down. I slipped and skidded once, otherwise we descended without incident. It was after 5 as we dropped down the last hundred metres or so to the glen floor, looking for spots that we could pitch upon. There were some grassy bits to the east of the loch and these were fairly level and fairly dry. We knew the winds were meant to climb tonight, but hoped, being SE to S in direction, that we'd be spared in the glen. It had been raining for hours and continued to do so as we pitched, making cooking tea a bit of a challenge without getting everything soaked.
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Al, on Flickr
Rain continued all night but it had become much warmer, and yesterday's snow had all been washed/melted off the hills. So the rivers were high. I had originally hoped to reach Druim na Sgriodan from Glen Gour, but this required a crossing of the Allt an t-Sluichd which might be problematic, as might be crossing MacLeans Towel on the way down. Not to mention being up high with big packs - although we were still quite sheltered in the glen, we could hear the wind roaring along the high tops. Beinn na h-Uamha was clearly a non-starter. So we crept along the glen, keeping to the south side of the river Gour so as we'd not need to cross further on. There are deer tracks to make this bearable for the few kms before you pick up the proper track. However, this was more like a river than a road - it's always flooded in places here, but today was particularly oceanic. In fact, when we got along to Loch nan Gobhar we could see that the loch had devoured various parts of the track, forcing us to hike up onto the embankment to get along. We paused for lunch in the old boathouse and considered what next.
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Swallowed track
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I fancied giving Druim na Sgriodan a try even though the wind was going to be horrendous - Met Office was quoting winds in the 60s and gusts in the 75mph range. Allison was feeling knackered and suggested I might like to try this one alone... We drove along to the graveyard, Cille Mhaodain - there's a spot for verge parking just north of the little bridge at the start. She stayed in the car, I got ready for a windy experience. And the rain began again...
Actually it stayed dry the great majority of the time I was on the hill. I walked past the graveyard, past the sheep and onto the hillside where a plethora of sheep tracks lead upwards. There are some craggy bits to avoid so I did keep checking my route. The wind was moderately strong - I had a degree of protection from the angle of the slope until I got higher up on Creag an Fhithich, then again protection as I walked into Coire na Cille. What was it going to be like up top though? I was puffing and panting with the effort of fighting the wind. I started up the shoulder at Beinn na Cille, thinking I'd get to the summit of Sgurr na Eacharna and see if I could stand up there - I was worried about the 2km between that and the summit of Druim Sgriodan which I reckoned would be high and exposed. However, I decided upon a cunning plan - I contoured round the inside of Coire Aluinn using step paths to skirt the steep grassy incline - this kept me out of the wind almost completely. When I joined the route over An Diollaid, I was able to keep down low by the deer fence, meaning I was also shielded from the south wind. And I reckoned the deer fence would catch me if I did become airborne.
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Al, on Flickr
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From here I kept along the fence line a bit longer than the WH route and then approached the summit from the NE, meaning that the worst of the wind was avoided. I didn't even need to crawl to the top! Heading down the WH route would have left me exposed to the fury of the wind, plus having to cross The Towel, so I wasted no time in returning the way I'd come up. Coming off the flanks of Eacharna the wind was stronger than it had been all day and it was all I could do at times to keep upright - even half blown over upright. The rain started in earnest as I got back to the car, hot and bothered but one more Graham to the good. Allison had made the right call for herself in choosing to give this one a swerve today.
Nearing the summit
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Made it!
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My plan to camp somewhere and head to Sgorr a'Choise tomorrow looked in tatters - I really don't fancy another day like today and the crossing of the Allt na Muidhe would likely be very difficult. Where doesn't have high winds? I looked at Braemar where I had one annoyingly isolated Graham, Creag Bhalg, sitting. The weather seemed to be much more reasonable there, according to our web-apps. It was a long way to drive, but then it wasn't really near anything else I needed anyway, so we could get it out of the road. Back over the ferry, which was still running courageously despite the choppy sea-loch, and up to Braemar we headed. We stopped at a spot we've used before along the Clunie Water. My god, the wind was almost as strong here as where we'd left. It was going to be a blowy night...at least we had the more sturdy tent to use.
Another night of rain and huge gusts - I had to get out and check the guys at three am when a strange tapping noise began. The forecast now had very big winds on our hill, but it's a rounded lump, protected by trees for the most part, so I wasn't too bothered. We headed along to Linn of Dee, which was unusually quiet for an April Sunday during the school holidays, I thought. Dry as we left the car, but the rain came and went all morning. This isn't a hill with many options, not even anything else you can reasonably combine it with. Last twice we'd gone along the road first - this time we'd head north from the car park and return by the road....you have to have some variation
Not much to add really - up the nice forest tracks, shielded mostly from the worst of the wind by the trees. There's a cairned footpath, bit overgrown, through the heather which is worth taking from the track to the summit unless you want to heather bash. The bigger Cairngorms had a little snow on them, then were swallowed by clag and rain. We made our summit, paused for a microsecond, then turned around and retraced our way to the track then descended to the road. We noticed that there's a cattle grid on the way to Linn of Quioch, that has a spar missing, so not one to drive over at speed. Back to the car for lunch then a windy drive back home, with five more Grahams in the bag
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