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The weather was looking good, but I couldn’t decide which mountains to climb today. I settled on Beinn Udlamain and Sgàirneach Mhòr, which promised to be a good day and fairly short
.
I started walking just after 09:00. The tops were hidden in the clouds, but the forecast had consistently said (for several days before) that it was pure sunshine at the summits. I should have known better! Five days ago, the same had happened when I did the Glas Mail circuit, and that didn’t turn out too well!
- From the bridge over the river near the beginning.
The first part of the route is along a wide stony track and is easygoing. After turning left and heading up towards Sgàirneach Mhòr I was quite quickly in the clag.
The “path” was very wet and boggy and with navigation becoming more difficult as visibility dropped to below 50m, I decided to practice some pacing to get me to the bealach at 750m - that went well and passed some time.
Once at the bealach, the route turns west and then south-west to head up to Sgàirneach Mhòr. By now visibility was down to below 50m, the wind had picked up and it was cold. I was beginning to think the weather forecast wasn’t accurate!
- Last glimpse back to the start before being enveloped in clag!
Eventually, the summit cairn appeared out of the mist – I sat down for a few minutes and ate a sandwich, it was 11:20. I didn’t want to stay long as my fingers were freezing up (Raynaud’s). The wind was probably only about 20km/hr but it felt freezing!
- The summit cairn on Sgàirneach Mhòr appearing out of the mist.
Sitting at the summit, I decided to check what the weather app was saying, and it was still for clear skies and light winds!
- The forecast and the reality!
At least from the bealach, the ground wasn’t boggy, it was easy-going grass, but it was wet. Across the summit plateau and down to the 800m mark it was still easygoing wet grass, but there were several “paths”, or at least hints of paths and some vehicle tracks, that made things quite confusing.
The terrain is featureless and in the mist navigation became difficult. Even with a GPS I found myself off the track and zig-zagging my way down as I kept overshooting the planned route. I was glad I had the GPS though because I didn’t fancy having to get the map and compass out.
I was about halfway down when OS Maps decided that I’d finished the track and promptly turned itself off – it’s been a real pain lately, not very reliable
. It restarted ok, but I ended up with the completed route in two halves.
After it had restarted, I made my way back to the route and was about to turn left, which I was convinced was going to take me in the right direction, but OS Maps was saying I needed to turn right. I had become disoriented in the mist, and it was hard to convince myself to follow the GPS – I actually thought that it’s tracking might have failed when it had switched off. But I decided to follow it for a short way and then reassess! It turned out to be correct and it was me that was wrong - that’s a bit worrying when you are on your own in those conditions.
Having reached the low point at 800m, the track, now boggy again, was easier to follow up the slopes to Beinn Udlamain.
I arrived at the summit at 13:00. There’s a large wind-shelter cairn there and it had a lot of metal fence posts leaning against it.
The weather now looked as if it might clear afterall, but it was very short lived – only a few minutes.
- The summit cairn on Beinn Udlamain.
- A brief look at the sky before the next clouds rolled in from the east.
I didn’t stop at this one, just carried on to get out of the cold wind as soon as possible.
Again, there were several tracks leading away from the summit but also a line of fence posts to help with navigation. Although quite a few of the fence posts were missing and I’m guessing the vehicle tracks were made by someone collecting the fallen ones – that would explain the pile at the summit and another pile after leaving the summit.
- The route down from the summit of Beinn Udlamain.
Shortly after leaving the summit, I heard voices and when I looked over, there were two shadowy figures heading up to the summit in the mist. They were only a few meters away, but I don’t think they saw me.
Navigating down from the summit was again difficult but this time I took a bearing and walked holding the compass for quite a bit of the way. The ground was steep in places and very wet – no fun at all!
When the route turned south-west to head down to the wide track that I’d started on, the path became clearer but very very boggy!
Near the bottom of that part of the track it looked like a bulldozed track of slimy mud – difficult to walk on and the bare heather roots at the side were just as slippery.
I emerged from out of the clag around 680m and was relieved to see the main track below me and the A9 in the distance.
- Emerging from the clag.
- The route back to the A9.
- The clag seemed to follow me down the hillside.
It took me about an hour to walk the remaining 3km or so back to the van – I arrived at 15:20.
- Looking back at the route.
I had thought the weather was unkind to me on the Glas Maol circuit a few days before, but this was worse.
Still, another 2 ticked off.
A few minutes’ drive from the layby there were some temporary traffic lights and looking over to the south-east I could see that some of the nearby hills had some good light on them, so I snapped a quick shot
– shame it wasn’t the same where I was.
- The view from the car.
Bye for now!
