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I was staying near Lairg after climbing Ben Hope yesterday and before climbing Ben Klibreck tomorrow. The single track road from Lairg is a good one so the drive to the big car park at Inchnadamph Hotel took 40 minutes. Yesterday I'd seen Ben More Assynt from Ben Hope and it kept a cloud cap all day despite other hills being mostly clear, so given that the forecast was for mostly cloud, perhaps lifting slightly in the morning, I didn't have high expectations. The general forecast at least didn't indicate much wind. When I arrived, Conival was very much shrouded in low cloud. I set off walking at 9.15am in the cold air.
- Low cloud seen at the start of the walk
The first mile or more was on a track before it narrowed to a reasonable path.
- Canisp
After half an hour the path turned off from the route to the Traligill Caves, and followed the River Traligill (really just a burn) up a winding sheltered gully towards Conival.
- Conival ahead
After 1¼ hour's walk, the ascent proper started, still following the burn now named Allt a' Choinne Mhill up a corrie. My legs didn't feel as fresh as yesterday, so I had to put in a bit more effort. The path alternated between boggy patches and stones. After over an hour's climb, by now in the cloud, the path crossed the burn at about 700m and reached a vertical wall perhaps 5m high which ringed the corrie near the top. The rock was quite broken, so it wasn't too difficult to find somewhere to scramble up it, although I had to be careful not to use hand holds on pieces of rock which might come away.
- The bealach appears above the corrie
Soon after that I was on the bealach at the bottom of Conival's ridge. There were no views in the cloud, and the wind was of course stronger so I put my fleece hood up. By now the ground was all stony, with snow lying. I could see a set of fresh footprints, so it seemed probable that somebody was ahead of me today. With the snow partially masking the path, I followed the footprints a lot of the time from then on - why route find when someone else has already done the job? The slope was soon fairly steep, and although the snow was soft and had a decent grip, care was needed in places to avoid slipping on snow covered rocks. After 25 minutes' climb the slope eased off and, if it hadn't been for the strong cold wind and cloud, it would have been quite a pleasant walk along the ridge. In the shelter of some rocks, I put on my jacket now that I was no longer generating as much heat by climbing.
- Conival ridge near the top
- Conival summit appears ahead
I was glad to reach the summit, where there were of course no views.
- Conival summit
In the cold conditions, I only stopped for less than 5 minutes before heading on. In the cloud it wasn't obvious which was the way to Ben More Assynt, so I checked my compass and started walking in the indicated direction. Before I'd gone any distance, it looked like a steep rocky drop ahead, so I checked my route description which said that there was a descent over scree. Just then, the person who had made the footprints appeared on his way back from Ben More Assynt, and he said that there was a risk of it getting dark if I wasted time getting there and back. I thought that I'd left in good time, so I was sceptical. He was intending doing Ben Hope tomorrow, so I said how I'd seen Ben More Assynt in the cloud yesterday from Ben Hope where it was sunny, so he could hope for better conditions there.
Descending over the rocks (much bigger than typical scree) took a bit of time finding a practical route, and it took half an hour to reach the bealach at the bottom.
- The ridge towards Ben More Assynt from just before the bealach
There was then a more level walk along the ridge, sometimes just above the pretty steep slope down into Garbh Choire to the right. Then, unexpectedly, the cloud began to lift and I was able to see Ben More Assynt ahead and some limited views to the north.
- The cloud lifts to reveal Ben More Assynt ahead
- Garbh Choire glimpsed to the south
- The view north is partly revealed
- Looking back at Conival, and Garbh Choire
The cloud then came back down after less than 10 minutes as I climbed up. After 15 minutes, I reached a top which I thought was the summit, but there was no cairn - strange! After checking my location on my phone, I discovered that it was Pt974, a minor top, and that the summit lay beyond another bealach. In the cloud I couldn't see the summit, and I also couldn't spot where the footsteps went, so set off downhill in the expectation of finding them, but there was no sign. Checking my compass I discovered that I'd gone at right angles to the path and had to go back up to the top where I the summit rise could by now be discerned through the cloud. Reassured, I set off in the right direction, and found the footprints again. After another climb I passed a mound and reached the summit rock outcrop. It was blowing a gale on top, and the summit rocks were encrusted with blown snow. There were two small cairns not far from each other, and I had to check OS Maps to see which was the actual summit.
- Ben More Assynt's tiny summit cairn perched on natural rock
I survived 8 minutes in the icy blast before going back down off the rock. I forgot to mention that there was no view again.
- Looking back at Ben More Assynt's summit outcrop
The walk across to Ben More Assynt seemed to have taken quite a while, in fact 1 hour 20 minutes or about double the book time, so it was beginning to look as if the warning about getting back before dark was more relevant than I'd thought. In the conditions I was happy to be going back now, but I still had to return over Pt974, go along that ridge and climb Conival again before I'd really feel I was going back down.
- Looking back at Pt974
- The climb back up to Conival's summit
By following the footsteps, I managed to find the route up the rocks to Conival's summit better than when I went down, and I was back at its top in not much more than an hour. It was reassuring to reach its summit shelter again, knowing that it would be all downhill from here. Descending the steeper part of the slope down to the bealach took some care since it's easier to slip on the snow going down than going up. Finally I reached the bealach and turned down the path into the corrie. There was further to go than I remembered before I reached the headwall where I scrambled down without too much difficulty.
- The scramble down into the corrie
Once past the scramble, I found somewhere to sit to eat something before starting the descent proper, trying to find the best route past the boggy bits. At 4pm the cloud was now starting to lift a bit, so I started getting some views.
- The top of the corrie
- Conival's ridge stretches up, with the headwall showing left
- The view to the south west (I don't know what caused the "flies" in the photo)
There were snow showers off and on all the way down, even well below the snow level. It was 5.15pm by the time I reached the bottom of the steep slope and came into the river gully. Looking back, I actually saw Conival properly for the first time before the cloud came down a bit again.
- Conival nearly clear of cloud<
- Conival clear of cloud
It seemed quite a long walk back down by the burn before reaching the path to the caves half an hour later, and then following the path and track down to the lochside at Inchnadamph - altogether an hour from the bottom of the corrie. By this time, the light was fading as the other walker had predicted, but I got back to the car before dark. The snowy conditions had definitely slowed the walk at times due to the need to avoid slipping or treading in the wrong place, and by making it more difficult to see the path.
Driving back, there were a lot of deer including stags beside the road in Inchnadamph and for the first few miles, so I had to drive slowly in case of accidents. After that, the road was quiet and reasonably fast. When I reached the chip shop in Lairg (the first place I'd seen for food) the lights were on but it had just closed at 7.30pm. At least the Spar shop next door was open so I didn't starve.
