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Wednesday, 29th. May, 2024.The arrangements had all been rather complex but, surprisingly, they seemed to be working. Having met up in Kent, Chalky, Lu, Tommy and I made it to Suardalan Bothy where we had briefly been joined by Toddy from Norfolk and then, on travelling up to Torridon, we'd been joined by Alex from London and Stefan from Edinburgh... and then, pretty much out of the blue, Finn turned up from Loch Fyne. All told, there were eight of us in the pub on Tuesday evening... and, perhaps oddly, only four of us (Alex, Chalky, Toddy and Tommy) were Physics teachers.
Anyway, the intention was to climb Liathach and, although Toddy absented himself in order to go off and climb some Corbetts, that is what we did. The size of the party and the poor weather meant that my plans to go round anticlockwise via Corrie na Caime and the Northern Pinnacles will have to wait for a better day but a shorter, clockwise circuit (with everybody taking turns at leading, etc., etc.) was good fun.
- Everyone except Tommy (who took the photo) approaching the first of the pinnacles (29.05.2024.)
- Finn, Lu and me in roughly the same place (29.05.2024.)
- Tommy, Lu and Finn (29.05.2024.)
- Mullach an Rathain, my final Munro north of the Great Glen (29.05.2024.)
- Lu, Stefan, Alex, Me and Chalky on Mullach an Rathain (29.05.2024.)
- Deciding on the best way off Mullach an Rathain (29.05.2024.)
- Tommy, Lu and me on the descent with Loch Torridon behind (29.05.2024.)
- Lu looking south to the bedded sandstones of Sgorr Ruadh and Maol Chean-Dearg (29.05.2024.)
- Head nets were needed while waiting for a lift at the base (29.05.2024.)
- Traverse of Liathach (29.05.2024.)
Sadly, almost as soon as it had formed, the Tolkeinesque fellowship of eight (lacking only someone with the wisdom of Gandalf) began to break up - though not before a convivial pint (delayed by Finn getting a puncture) in the sunny and welcoming back garden of the Kinlochewe Hotel. Then Chalky and I headed east to drop Lu and Tommy at a bed and breakfast near the southern transport links of Inverness and Finn re-orientated himself towards his home on Loch Fyne. The rest of us, though, headed further north to Ullapool and the (moderately inexpensive) bunkhouse belonging to the Ceilidh Place.
Postscript: Thursday, 30th. May, 2024.With a round of the Munros already under his belt, Toddy was - as ever - doing his own thing but Alex, Chalky and Stefan were up for An Teallach and, as I had last climbed this hill (or, indeed, these hills) in 1985, it would have been churlish not to have joined them. We duly arrived at Corrie Hallie in reasonable time (well, given all the faff, it was probably after 10.30.am.) and headed up towards Sail Liath. Apparently we passed Bill Bailey on his way back from Shenavall but I'm sorry to say that, my eyes fixed on the summits, I walked straight past him and his entourage so it was left to Chalky to extract a greeting. Stefan, whose sister was due to give birth later that day, apparently suggested to her that the new baby should be called Bill.
At any rate, the ridge gained after some steepness, we headed north west and began to engage in some scrambling on Corrag Bhuidhe as the clag closed in and a cold, thin drizzle started to fall. There then followed some glorious but shameful incompetence as Stefan and I pressed on over the pinnacles, Chalky took a diversionary path to the west and Alex, feeling a bit ill, retreated in favour of another diversionary path. In a matter of about three minutes and despite all our years of experience in mountaineering, in hill walking, in instructing groups of students, etc., etc., we were as disconnected from each other as a bunch of prospective Tory MPs faced with an election. That said - and in contrast to the previous simile - it only took 15 minutes of back-tracking to reunite the party and, after that (and especially as Alex continued to deteriorate) we kept together in the approved manner!
- Moving on from Stob Cadha Gobhlach (30.05.2024.)
- Up towards the pinnacles of Corrag Bhuidhe (30.05.2024.)
- Looking down to Loch Toll an Lochain from the pinnacles (30.05.2024.)
- Chalky and me on the chockstone of Chockstone Gully (30.05.2024.)
- Looking back from the descent of Sgurr Fiona (30.05.2024.)
The top of Sgurr Fiona duly arrived through the clag - a good location, I thought, for a chilly but very pleasant tin of mackerel - and a quick 20 minutes or so put us on top of Biean a'Ghlas Thuill. From there, we ignored the standard descent to Dundonnell and headed east over Glas Mheall Liath (thus, inadvertently, picking up a new top) and returned to Corrie Hallie cross country.
The going was, unfortunately, very rough over lots of angular, coarse, quartzite blocks and Alex was still feeling unpleasantly ill (periodic vomiting, etc. as a result of food poisoning of some sort) so, abandoning the mountaineering code altogether, Chalky and I legged it and left him and Stefan to fend for themselves while we headed for a beer in Ullapool with Toddy, who had been running around on the Fannichs. Callous. (In truth, we did see them down to about 550 metres before entrusting Alex to the capable hands of Stefan; going slowly, they made it back to Ullapool in Stefan's car some time before midnight.)
- Traverse of An Teallach (30.05.2024.)
Next Report:
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=124595.
