Finishing off The Mamores with The Ring of Steall
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:38 am
Today the weather wasn't the best and the views were mixed with no views at all from the summits, but in my opinion you didn't need views as there was enough interest in the ridge to keep your mind occupied. The ridge is narrow in places, rocky at times and damn good fun,if you enjoy the scrambling side of it but in no way dangerous. As with all narrow and rocky ridges you just take your time and watch your footing, we were also extra carefull due to it being wet.
The route we took was up the steep path to Sgurr a' mhaim, this is a steep ascent with a few faulse tops and as you gain height the path becomes stoney, with loose scree. It's a case of one step forward and half a step backwords once on the scree path.
After this initial ascent and you reach the summit of Sgurr a' Mhaim, the fun begins. From Sgurr a' Mhaim you take the narrow ridge, this was the narrowest section of the ridge and doesn't involve scrambling but is only a very short section, towards Sgorr an Lubar and round to Am Bodach. From Am Bodach, the descent is pretty steep and rocky with a bit of scree as well. You then head up towards Stob Coire a' Chairn with no "difficulties" at this section and onto The Devils Ridge towards An Gearanch, the rocky scrambling section and as i said great fun with no great danger. After The Devils Ridge is negotiated it's a short stoll to An Gearanach and down the well defined path to the Water of Nevis. The fun isn't quite over yet as you still have the wire bridge to cross, which poses no problems and is quite enjoyable, unless you're like Mo who decided to take the river option for fear of falling off the bridge.
On return to the Water of Nevis you get a stunning view of the spactacular waterfall running down of An Gearanach.The last bit of the walk is along the Water of Nevis and back to the car park. This section is full of tourists, not the friendliest bunch, with a polite hello being met with a stare as if you were a alien and not even a wave to say thanks for stepping onto the verge on the road section to allow them past in their cars. Thankfully very few of them climb hills.
The final part of this report is which is the best route to do this walk. People will have their own opinions, so here's mine. I say the way we went, purely because going up Sgurr a' Mhaim is probably easier than coming down and secondly once you get off An Gearanach it is extremely boggy getting over to the path towards the mountain rescue hut. All thats left to say now is, enjoy The Ring of Steall.
The route we took was up the steep path to Sgurr a' mhaim, this is a steep ascent with a few faulse tops and as you gain height the path becomes stoney, with loose scree. It's a case of one step forward and half a step backwords once on the scree path.
After this initial ascent and you reach the summit of Sgurr a' Mhaim, the fun begins. From Sgurr a' Mhaim you take the narrow ridge, this was the narrowest section of the ridge and doesn't involve scrambling but is only a very short section, towards Sgorr an Lubar and round to Am Bodach. From Am Bodach, the descent is pretty steep and rocky with a bit of scree as well. You then head up towards Stob Coire a' Chairn with no "difficulties" at this section and onto The Devils Ridge towards An Gearanch, the rocky scrambling section and as i said great fun with no great danger. After The Devils Ridge is negotiated it's a short stoll to An Gearanach and down the well defined path to the Water of Nevis. The fun isn't quite over yet as you still have the wire bridge to cross, which poses no problems and is quite enjoyable, unless you're like Mo who decided to take the river option for fear of falling off the bridge.
On return to the Water of Nevis you get a stunning view of the spactacular waterfall running down of An Gearanach.The last bit of the walk is along the Water of Nevis and back to the car park. This section is full of tourists, not the friendliest bunch, with a polite hello being met with a stare as if you were a alien and not even a wave to say thanks for stepping onto the verge on the road section to allow them past in their cars. Thankfully very few of them climb hills.
The final part of this report is which is the best route to do this walk. People will have their own opinions, so here's mine. I say the way we went, purely because going up Sgurr a' Mhaim is probably easier than coming down and secondly once you get off An Gearanach it is extremely boggy getting over to the path towards the mountain rescue hut. All thats left to say now is, enjoy The Ring of Steall.