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I didn't get out this weekend because of a big family doo to celebrate my folks ruby wedding, which turned out to be excellent
This also meant that my Sister Gillean was home from Australia for a couple of weeks - Yaay! She said she wanted to go up into the hills for a couple of days, so i started thinking up routes.. Then my other sister Fionnadh decided that she wanted to come too.. With her husband Rohan, and wee Ruairidh, who is only 5 months old.. Well that cut the options down considerably! So we decided on a nice wee bothy.. Coire Fionnaraich.
Gillean and I set off on Sunday night.. We only just made the supermarket in Dingwall for supplies before arriving at Coulags at 7. We got chased from the car by midges after the usual faff, and set out for the bothy in blustery, showery conditions. Its a lovely walk in on a superbly maintained path up the glen. Once we were over the footbridge though, my bad weather faerie caught up with us, and the heavens opened
We were almost running as we spotted the bothy and the prospect of shelter..
There was a DOE leader inside, who quickly retired to bed and we were left to yap and drink tea by ourselves
In the morning we set off up the glen, still showery, and still blustery, I knew the tops were going to be insanely windy, and I knew Gill wouldn't like it, so I kept quiet
it was an easy walk up to the head of the glen past a nice wee lochan, and some nice views. Despite the rain, there wasnt much clag
Once we had got up to Bealach Ban, views of Torridon appeared suddenly before us.. Oooh it was lovely
a bit further on there was more jaw dropping when we caught our first views of Coire Grannda - Grand indeed!
From there, I picked a route up through the crags and we took a direct-ish route to the summit. The conditions were getting uncomfortable, and we didn't stick around long.
From there we followed the baggers path.. I lost it though on the slabs, and we ended up on top of a fairly sizeable cliff.. Hmmm
We couldn't go right without climbing up a fair bit, so we headed left.. a couple of places looked like a feasable scramble down, but all I managed to do was scare myself trying, so we searched on until we found a rake going downward that was suitable. There was an awkward move though, and Gill took a couple of goes, but the relief when we got down.. A complete 'yaay!' moment
We made our way back to the path over rocky bouldery ground. The weather was getting worse by the second, and the plans to do Sgorr Ruadh were ditched as we were buffeted by strong winds and pelting rain
We went over the bealach, back down into Coire Grannda and retraced our steps back to the bothy, with the clag hiding all the bonny views we had seen earlier and with our hatches firmy battoned down!
We got back to the Bothy about 3, and had just enough time for a cuppa before we saw Fionnadh, Rohan and Ruairidh coming up the glen. I shoved on my wet boots and ran to meet them. Happy reunions
A wee one involves quite a lot of work and the next few hours passed in a blur until Ruairidh finally went to bed and we got the fire on to dry out some of the wet gear. I was so glad I took some fuel in because Autumn has definately arrived..
We all slept well, including the wee man thankfully, in his wee sleeping bag, he was so cute
After our fill of tea and porridge, we got Ruairidh all snuggled up
and set out for Maol Chean dearg.. Well we tried, but a heavy shower just as we were leaving had us back in the bothy until a weather window opened and we finally set off. It was to be a short day, with plenty time.
So up the glen just a short distance before a left turn took us up toward bealach a coire Gairbh. The path is a bit eroded, but that made it hard to lose, and it was far easier angled than the map would suggest.
We found a sheltered spot at the Bealach for a picnic on a space blanket. The showers had dampened us down well, and Ruairidh wasn't keen on Stopping, so we were soon making our way up the steep scree baggers path.
We made it up onto the rocky shoulder to be met by high velocity hail that stung our cheeks. The wind was getting crazy, and we contemplated turning back, the bairn was still in high spirits though, so we pushed on, up the boulderfield. Just a couple of hundred metres from the summit, the greeting started though.. definately time to turn back, but Rohan was determined that the wee man would make the summit.. we could see it!! So we hastened the pace, and stopped in the shelter for a few seconds.. No good photos of Ruairidh's first munro though, it really was the worst weather I had seen for a long time, and thats saying something
Just a wee bit off the summit, hunkered down in the lea of a cliff, we got the wee man out to see what was up. He was breastfed and changed under a makeshift space blanket shelter, but he was still a bit grizly as we descended as quickly as possible to try and get out of the wind. When we got to he scree path though, the heavens opened again, and the direction we were going, we got the hail full in the face. It hurt through our clothes it was being chucked at us with such force.. Wee man wasnt happy, but then fell asleep once we got the couple of hundred yards back to the path.. Oh what an adventure for one so young!
A speedy, short descent back to the bothy later, we were all sitting beside a nice toasty fire, with full bellies
That just left the walk out for this morning. The rain overnight had been severe enough to wake us all up, so the path resembled a river on the walk back. Sunny skies though, and a jovial walk.
Despite the bad weather at times, we had had a brilliant time, and made memories we shall take with us to our graves.. What a bonny place! I'm so glad I'll have to go back
