The Fast, The Slow & The Mountains: A tough day!

[Meiklie Mist]

I had had this round on my “to do in the near future” list for a while but as the days got shorter, I kept changing my mind as to whether to attempt it in the winter or wait for the longer days next spring. In the end, I decided to just go for it, knowing that some of the walk would be in the dark – little did I know how much!

This was my first trip out where I fully expected to have to use crampons, although I had carried them on a few earlier trips, just in case. Given that and the length of the walk, daylight hours, etc. I didn’t want to take either of the dogs with me, so once again it was a solo trip for one slow human.

I planned to start walking at 06:00, thinking I’d get most of the walking in the dark done at the start of the day. As it turned out, I didn’t leave the car park until 06:50 – it was a cold November day, around -5°.

The first mile and a half was very easy as it’s just a walk along a road past the abandoned township. Just after that, when the track starts to climb gently, the road becomes a stony track, which was good but there was a lot of ice on it in places.

The sun beginning to rise about half an hour into the walk.

About halfway to the bridge over the Allt Fionndrigh I decided I was fed up with avoiding the ice and put on my microspikes – I should have done that earlier; it would have made the walk a bit quicker!

Looking back along the route so far.

The way ahead; Càrn Dearg not yet visible.

A little further along, Càrn Dearg now coming into view.

Just before I crossed the river, I noticed that one of my micro spikes seemed to slip a bit; curious as to why, I looked at it and realised that I’d managed to put it on inside out, so that the spikes were facing the sole of my boot!

There are two small wooden bridges crossing the river; one looks sturdier, but I was nearest to the other one, so crossed there. Half of the handrail was missing, it was icy and looked a bit rickety, so I was a cautious walking over it – I didn’t want to end up in the river at this stage of the walk!

The rickety bridge.

The sturdier looking bridge.

Once across the river the track immediately deteriorated into a partially frozen bog, which went on for the next mile and half or so, to the start of the ascent of Càrn Dearg. Trudging across the bog was tedious with no path and small peat hags to contend with.

Looking ahead at Càrn Dearg.

Looking south shortly after the start of the bog.

Looking up at Càrn Dearg shortly before the ascent begins.

The snowline started at about 700m and was a mixture of the soft powdery stuff and some icy sections. With no path, and not even any footprints, it quickly became a slog to plough through and it was shortly after getting onto the snow that I swapped my micro spikes for crampons.

As I started to climb, the cloud came onto the summit, but by the time I got up there, it had cleared, and the views were good.

Almost to the summit of Càrn Dearg.

Looking east from the summit cairn.

Looking south-west from the summit.

It was a long pathless slog through frozen, and not so frozen, bog and then snow and ice to get to the top of Càrn Dearg – almost six and a half miles, and I didn’t reach there until 11:45 (5 hours from the car park)!

It was clear now that if I carried on, I be doing a lot of walking in the dark at the end, which I didn’t really want to do, but the thought of trudging back the way I’d come resulted in me deciding to continue – hoping that my pace might speed up on the plateau (I should have known better!).

The snow towards the top of the mountain was hard and icy, so crampons were essential, but it was a breeze walking down and ascending Càrn Bàn. However, by the time I got there, the cloud had descended again and there were only fleeting views to be had.

Looking north across Lochan Uisge shortly after leaving Càrn Bàn.

The terrain across the plateau is rocky for quite a long way and the rocks only being partially covered in snow made it difficult to walk on. I debated taking the crampons off as it was too easy to be caught off balance by a rock hidden just under the snow, but there were some very icy sections that I needed them for, so I just struggled on at a very slow pace.

WH says the route becomes less stony and boggier all the way across the plateau, and I was looking forward to getting back onto the bog! But the rock seemed endless, each time it looked like it had ended, more appeared; the easier going ground didn’t materialise for a long time. It’s about 3 and a half miles from Càrn Bàn before the ascent to Carn Sgùlain begins and the walk seemed to just go on and on and on. It wasn’t helped by the fact that there were no views because of the low cloud. On the plus side, the line of fenceposts was very welcome indeed as they meant that no navigation was required.

It was a completely white wilderness, with very little wind and crisp clean snow for miles, with no footprints only deer tracks marking it – very bleak, but peaceful.

Part way across, I allowed myself a 10-minute break for lunch, which consisted of some warm soup and a cheese and pickle sandwich.

The view for three and a half miles (a section without rocks 😂)!

As I was coming to the end of the plateau, Carn Sgùlain and A’ Chailleach came into view for the first time; they looked quite close together and for a short while, I thought I might make both summits in daylight, but sadly that wasn’t to be.

My first view of Carn Sgùlain and A’ Chailleach.

The ascent to Carn Sgùlain was straightforward, but the summit is about half a mile past the “summit” that can be seen on the approach. I genuinely thought that the first summit was the top when I got to the cairn, but looking around for the second cairn that WH mentions, I quickly realised that the summit was the next one, that looked oh so far away.

As I plodded on, it was now obvious that I wasn’t going to get to A’ Chailleach in daylight, but all I could do now was to get the headtorch out ready and the charging block that I now needed for my phone.

I reached the summit of Carn Sgùlain at 15:45 but didn’t linger as the sun was fast dropping towards the horizon and I was expecting it to get quite cold soon.

Looking across at A’ Chailleach from the approach to Carn Sgùlain.

Looking east with Carn Sgùlain on the left.

Looking south.

The sun setting fast now!

Another one of the setting sun.

After leaving Carn Sgùlain, the route cuts across below the previous false summit before ascending A’ Chailleach. The ground, especially with the snow, is very uneven and a couple of times I nearly fell in my attempt to speed up a bit, so had to slow back down again!

The light was disappearing fast now, so no more photos.

I had to switch on my headtorch just before the ascent of A’ Chailleach, at which point I had a bit of a dilemma… given that it was now dark, should I bypass the summit, pick up the path down, and try to get back as soon as possible? It didn’t take long for me to decide that I wasn’t prepared to give up now, with only 100m left to climb – it didn’t look too steep from what I could see whilst it was still light. So, I decided to head for the summit and turn back if, at any point, I though the ground was too steep to come back down. It wasn’t very steep and until near the summit, the snow was soft and not very deep, which was a bit of a problem because I still had the crampons on, which were now becoming a hindrance as the soft snow started balling on the anti-balling plates!

Shortly before the summit the snow became icy again, so I was glad I’d kept the crampons on! I arrived just before 17:30 but with absolutely nothing to see and a long walk still ahead of me, I started straight back down.

Before ascending, I’d looked at the options for coming down and felt that the WH route looked a bit steep in the dark, but there was a path on the OS map which went off WSW, turning SE at 850m before joining the WH route a bit lower down. On the summit, the WH route did look as if it might be steep and I didn’t want my first (I hope there’s never a first) self-arrest to be in the dark, so I decided on the OS map option, which although longer, looked safer for me.

In fact, the route down turned out to be a very gentle descent and I was pleased that I’d chosen it. The easiest way to navigate in the dark was with my phone held out in front of me, so that I could keep to the path; not actually difficult for most of the way because the imprint of the track could be seen beneath the snow.

At about 800m I decided it was time to take off the crampons, but for a while thought that I wasn’t going to be able to get them off as the straps appeared frozen solid and I couldn’t get them undone . Just when I was thinking that I might have to cut them off, I managed to get them to release – phew!

Between 650-550m the descent got very slightly steeper, but by then the snow was behind me (it had stopped abruptly at 700m) and it wasn’t any problem at all .

Once down to the river crossing, I was looking forward to the route becoming a track as the WH guide said – I was disappointed! After crossing the river, there was a boggy ATV track leading in the right direction, so I put my phone away and started to follow that, but after about 100m I checked and discovered that it wasn’t going the right way after all!

After cutting back across the uneven heather to get to the official route, it was a further 200m or so before I got to a proper track, which was probably only about 600m from the river crossing, but seemed much longer in the dark, on my now very tired legs.

Coming down holding my phone to keep on the route, I couldn’t use both of my walking poles and by the time I reached the river crossing, my lower back was aching badly and to add insult to injury, I had a blister on my left heal!

Once on the proper track, I could at least start using both poles again, but the faster pace, meant more pain from the blister, which as it turned out, had burst and my sock was stuck to the skin – yuk!

It was then about a mile and a half back to the car park, which again seemed never ending, so I was very pleased when I eventually arrived back at my van – it was 20:45 and had taken me 14 hours!

There hadn’t been any other vehicles in the car park when I arrived and there weren’t any when I returned – the van had a thick crust of ice on it, as did my rucksack and there was even ice formed on the inside lower part of my gaiters, but I hadn’t been cold all day, which was a bonus.

It had been a long hard trek, and I hadn’t seen another soul all day, but I was still pleased that I’d done it.

Until next time!

[johnbythell]

Geat report and some beautiful snow pic there!

[Meiklie Mist]

Geat report and some beautiful snow pic there!

Thanks 😊