Aonach Beag and Aonoch Mor

[Les Stuart]

Due to the poor weather we had the past month and a wedding the wife and I were at the previous weekend, I was having withdrawal symptoms and also running behind the hill walking programme that I had set out for May and June.
On Friday evening I drove up to Fort William and stayed overnight with friends and on Saturday morning arrived at the car park at the top of the glen to commence the walk of the two Aonachs. I was feeling a little apprehensive about my fitness as I had not been out on the hills for five weeks and although I had done some cycling, as I was to discover later in the day, my lack of fitness would catch up with me.

Steall Waterfall

Bridge

Left the car about 9.30am and headed through the Nevis gorge into the open glen and it is always a great sight to see
the Steall Waterfall. There was also a queue of walkers to go across the rope bridge. I moved on and reaching the Steall Cottage ruin I took the path behind the ruin and headed north east aiming for Sgurr a' Bhuic. On looking up the cloud was fairly low though south across to the Mamores the hills were clear.

The route ahead

Sgurr a' Mhaim

An Gearanach

Binnein Mor

However as I gained height the cloud lifted and by the time I reached the south west ridge of Surr a' Bhuic it looked as if the mist was only lying on the summit of Aonach Beag. At this point I decided to traverse round Sgurr a' Bhuic and pick the ridge up between Sgurr a' Bhuic and Stob Coire Bhealaich. On this ridge there are great views to the east of the Grey Corries with no mist on their summits.

The Grey Corries

Sgurr a' Bhuic

On reaching Stob Coire Bhealaich I headed for Aonach Beag and was joined by a guy from the Borders and we completed the walk to the summit together.

Aonach Beag in mist

By now my lack of fitness had caught up with me and my thigh muscles were aching. We had a brief rest and being in the mist there were no views. We set off for Aonach Mor and after droping down through rocky ground to the bealach I was pleased to see that it was a gradual slope to the summit. Managed to get a view as the mist lifted just as we were approaching.

Aonach Mor

Summit Aonach Mor

After lunch I set off back along the ridge to look for the path that would take me down to the bealach between the west cliff of Aonach Mor and Carn Mor Dearg. The guy that I was with set off for the ski centre as his son was watching the World Mountain Bike Championships that was taking place on the lower slopes of Aonach Mor.

West Cliff of Aonach Mor

I had trouble finding the path so set off down the steep face of the cliff and eventually reached the bealach. From there it was a straight walk south down Coire Giubhsachan, with all the rain we have had was like a bog and the path kept disappearing in places.

Coire Giubhsachan

Picked up the Glen Nevis path to get back to the car. It was a good day with no rain and mist only on the summits though the Ben was covered in cloud all day.
Hopefully my fitness is back up as I am off to Skye in two weeks with friends.

[skuk007]

Nice report Les, hoping to do this walk this summer so good to see some of the hills I will get to view on the route.

When returning to the path in Glen Nevis did the path (when you could see one) through the Coire have the river on it's left or right?