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With a good forecast for Saturday, we headed up to Morar on Friday night, surviving a nasty scare when an oncoming car lost control on the Rannoch Moor road.
Got up at 5.30am in order to be in plenty of time for the 7.30am ferry from Mallaig. Lovely views on the crossing: also spotted 2 porpoises and 2 Minke whales!
The ferry times give you about 10 and a half hours ashore (Saturdays only!), so we wasted no time walking from the pier to Kinloch Castle and then up the Coire Dubh path, gradually emerging from the trees. At the wee dam we met a geology student sitting on a rock drawing a map: clearly a hard day at the office! We followed a path to the SE which fades away at a little col, and then headed over stony ground towards Hallaval. Where the ridge steepen there are a few little scrambly steps. A small group of deer seemed unconcerned by our presence and barely bothered to get out of the way! The summit arrives suddenly, and has a fantastic view of the rest of the Cuillin.
The descent off Hallaval is steep and needs some scrambling, mostly on the west side. Beyond the col there is a lovely grassy arete, before the way is blocked by the Askival pinnacle. We took the bypass path on the left: this is quite faint in places, but keeps going left and up until a steep move or two out of a little amphitheatre regains the ridge just below the summit.
The descent off Askival is long and stony: false trails kept leading off left and we had to traverse back to regain the ridge a couple of times. Since we knew we woyld not have time to go right to the end of the ridge, we opted to go straight to Ainshval next, traversing steep grassy slopes under the crags of Trallval to gain the next col. Ainshval is easier than it appears: a path skirts the lower rocks on the right, and then rises leftwards to deposit you a few yards from the summit cairn.
We returned to the col and now tackled Trallval: very steep but no real difficulties if you keep to the right higher up. To reach the higher western top, there is a lovely scramble along a narrow ridge. Now to head back to Kinloch: first we descended the E ridge, stopping to chat to a couple who were heading for the bothy at Dibidil. Above a steep section the trace of a path fades out: we kept left and found a way down via some scrambly steps. From the Bealach an Oir, we took a long traverse line around the back of Atlantic Corrie: this is quite hard going, over boulders and rough ground, with only the occasional trace of a path. It was quite relief to reach Bealach Bairc-mheall knowing we would not have to rush for the ferry!
We wandered back down the path to Kinloch, had a welcome bottle of juice from the island shop, and wandered back along the coast together with a lady from New York who had also come over for the day.
We looked out for otters, but in vain!
The ferry was heaving with folk coming back from a festival on Canna: looked like a few sore heads for some of them the next day! We were disappointed to find that the chippy in Mallaig shuts at 8 on a Saturday night (why?) though thankfully one of the cafes was still open!
So, a quick raid on Rum: didn't do it justice really, but a beautiful day to be on a lovely set of hills.
Askival and Hallival from the ferry
Approaching Hallival
Barkeval
Deer on Hallival
Askival from Hallival
Looking back at Hallival
The grassy arete
Trallval
Bottom of the long descent from Askival
Hallival and Askival form Ainshval
Sgurr nan Gillean
Eigg
Summit of Trallval
Looking back from the ferry
Over the sea to Skye....
