A'Chailleach, Carn Sgulain & carn Dearg

[munrowalker]

Afraid its going to be a wee bit shorter a report than I planned as rapidly running out of time what with heading away on holiday on saturday! That and I've another report to write up before then!

Mondays trip was up A' Chailleach, Carn Dearg (Monadhliath), Carn Sgulain with my mate Terry from work. Or should I say Papa Smurf (well that was the crack on the hill with his hat that made him look like a smurf!

Started at the car parking bit at Shepherd's Bridge about 9.30am conditions were perfect, no wind rain, and sun was threatening to come out, how wrong could I be, we got totally drookit!

Path heads up along Creag an Loin and gives a nice view back across the A9 as you ascend to A'Cheallach. Stop off at the hut on the way, and got totally attacked by midges for firt time this year, skin so soft didnae work.

Mist rolls in on route to summit, and then the wind, but hey ho well used to it now so no matter.

Terry makes good pace up here, reckon he was battering on a bit too fast to be honest, he'll pay for it later on.

Pretty straightforward so far, amazed at how dry hillside was going up compared with other hills recently, how wrong could I be...
After summit its a walk along past a bealach to Carn Sgulain, and boy does it look like a doctor who set up here. Heather is all eroded away with huge brown sections with bits if heather sticking up, really quite alien. Someone could probaly descrive it better than me though.

Summit of Carn Sgulain is pretty flat, reckon it was third set of cairns at the top, wasn't that much difference heightwise between any of them.

Reverse route and then long 7km walk along boundary fence (whats left of it) to Carn Dearg, totally muddy along here, but pretty flat so quite easy bash on.

Could hardly see Carn Dearg as we approached it, saw a guy who was wandering about trying to find it, and thought for a second he was actually going to be heading down without finding it.But he saw us heading up so followed us.

Boy is the cliffs off Carn Dearg sheer, good old vertigo kicked in here with the wind, so got to top but kept well back!

At section between Carn Dearg and Carn Ban we dropped down into the valley alongside Allt Ballach to follow stream out back to path.

Really started to rain further down here, but spectacular views back up to cliffs fo Carn Dearg.

Really enjoyed the walk out here, loads of up and down bumpy bits to really get the old legs working.

Thought the walk would never end though as it just seems to go on and on, kept thinking we'd turned the corner to see the car, but always another bit ahead.

Loads of piccies below, and first ones of me on one of my reports. I'm the tall one, Terry is the guy in the white trousers (bit of a bad idea that, and boy did he get the wind up for that!).

first stream crossed

me enjoying the views

sweaty!

still sweaty!

terry at first summit

me at summit of A'Chailleach

papa smurf

no this isnae the summit but if terry insists on taking me photo here fair enough

now thats the summit

terry crossing the bogs

terry at summit of carn dearg

mist and rain coming....

terry...tired

cliffs back to carn dearg

me, wet, hat not like papa smurf

cliffs of Carn Dearg

meal n carrdaich

view back to start, wet!

[Mrs T]

The obvious question is just how tired was Papa Smurf towards the end? Are you still in speaking terms? I got the impression he isn't that experienced. One needs to be very careful when introducing friends to the delights of hill-walking. We've completely put off at least two couples from ever getting to the hills again... One couple was disillusioned by a week in Gairloch, another by a long weekend in Snowdonia. After that husband and I have never invited anyone unless it's someone who is happy with low level walks on their own. Of course it doesn't help that we usually go in September and for the last X years the weather has been crap. On the other hand, during my other trip to Scotland in early June (with friends far more experienced than I) the weather has been almost perfect. Can only think of one day during the last 5 years that was so wet we didn't venture anywhere.

This is one of the candidates for my week in Aviemore. Just noticed a very worrying bit in the route report, which says

Continue on the track up Gleann Fionndrigh until it ends after just over three kilometres. Take a path on the left which crosses the river by way of a fairly dilapidated footbridge.

You did it the other way around, but if you came by that bridge how bad was it? Bearing in mind, that I am terrified of them

[mountain coward]

Papa Smurf's bin shot wi' 2 arrows!! Looks like it in one shot!

I quite enjoyed that walk myself - did it in frosty/snowy weather so expected no bog but there was still quite a bit - a lot of it was on the approach to A' Chailleach when the slope first slackened off... But boy, that glen walk back is really looooong like you said! I was lucky enough to hook up with another bloke doing it and we chatted all the way round from A' Chailleach - very pleasant company and made the long miles go quicker...