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.....lend me your ears, for I have found the best hill, in the best conditions, in the best location with the best guide ever!!! Unlike Mark Antony's address, this report will contain no false flattery or thinly veiled mockery, this for me was everything a day on the hills should be and I'll happily present my case to back up my claims.
Due to commitments to work
and training for running events
, I had been unable to join the MWSPC for some fantastic outings. I was not happy about their tales of laughter and mayhem
My nose was so severely put out of joint that even Picasso would have found me repulsive
Two things kept me going, a much planned trip to Skye in mid-September and the other was the promise from Ron that the first good day that was forecast after my half-marathon he would take me to do Liathach
Ooooooh fantastic! Luckily the run jogged along nicely and given that I rarely leave my comfort zone I was happy to finish a minute faster than last year- but well done to all those who gave it their all and a wee bit more
And so to the report....The plan was for me to drive up to Inverness and meet Ron at Tesco, well I got the first bit spot on... I drove up to Inverness and met him at Tiso. Ach nearly right
From here we ventured northwest, past the Inverness Caley FC ground (not Ross Co, Iain!!!) and onwards to a pitstop for smashing bacon rolls and a cup of tea.
After about 40 mins we reached Kinlochewe and turned onto a very well maintained single-track road with lots of passing spaces and loads of places to park up and camp. The usual parking area was full so we just drove along to next available space and got ourselves organised. Waterproofs and heavy fleeces were left behind in favour of more fluids being taken along. Ron advised me to take along my poles but to tuck them well out of the way- Meatball's brush with death (read his excellent report on Liathach and you'll know what I'm talking about), had me following orders without question. Although in the end Ron put them in his rucksack but luckily didn't squash our lunch.
At last we were off!
The ascent of this hill is hard work but the path is excellent and not nearly as bad as I expected, plus Ron's laces kept coming loose, so it was only polite for me to stop too and take some photos
The wonderful thing about this type of ascent, you quickly gain height and the views get better and better, oh and you can still see you car
Ron pointed out all the hills he had climbed across the road, which included Sgurr Dubh, Maol Chean-dearg and Sgorr Ruadh (apologies if I wasn't listening properly)
The path has some interesting scrambling sections to warm you up for the main event and was great fun to do.
Once we were up at the bealach we got our first sneaky peek at Beinn Eighe.
We opted not to visit the top to the right (Ron had done it twice before) and instead joined the very prominent path and headed west towards our first target of the day- Spidean a Choire Leith.
It looks a wee bit tricky but it was no bother because of the good path and you are soon at the summit. It was here that we met a lovely couple who were heading back down, they were happy just to bag Spidean today.
As a reward for driving all the way up to Inverness, Ron had promised to provide all the food the day. I was a wee bit apprehensive about this because my approach is more is more!!! Whereas Ron tends to rely pranic energy
But today the boy didn't disappoint
The descent off the summit had too much scree for it to be enjoyable, it was only to be endured
With the straightforward part of the walk out of the way, the best was yet to come- the Am Fasarinen pinnacles
As we approached them Ron turned to me and said 'we can go over the pinnacles or we can take the bypass path' . It was never my intention to use the bypass option because as Ron pointed out we had the Cuillin to tackle next week and this would be excellent training. And over the pinnacles we went- yippee
I am not particularly skilled or confident at scrambling but I knew Ron would guide me over every dodgy move ahead. He did this previously on the Aonach Eagach and I was 100% confident he would do this again
It should be noted that these pinnacles are not in the same class of scariness as A/E and are over and done with pretty quickly, so please enjoy them- I know I certainly did and even Ron noticed that my confidence grew and left me to get on with the job in hand without having to give me step by step instructions
The weather continued to be glorious and as well as having tremendous fun on the pinnacles we got to drink in our amazing views
.
- Beinn Alligin
Once we were back on the path the walk up to our second summit Mullach an Rathan was incredibly benign and relaxing. We spent a good wee time here posing for photos and identifying more hills in the distance including next week's target.
A short walk from the summit is a marker cairn showing the best route of descent.
If you like scree surfing, you'll love this!! If you don't then you'll hate it!! I employed my poles to help me down slowly and I was fine. I did try the surfing malarkey but ended up on my bahookie twice!!!
The path soon improves and leads you back to the road, and fortunately for me and Ron a rather nice man from Torridon Activities gave us a lift the 2km back to the car
It had truly been an amazing day. Everyone goes on and on about how fantastic Torridon is and how the hills there are real hills that stand alone just asking to be admired- well I certainly did, they are unforgettable!!
Have I convinced you that this was Heaven on Earth? There's only one way to find out- get yourself up there!!! Oh and if you're lucky, you'll be able to convince Ron that he really does want to go there for a fourth time
