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Decided to get these 2 on Saturday, thought they would be easyish from Glen Etive but it's pathless, boggy terrain between the hills.
Parked where the road ends and headed up the 'path' at the side of the forestry - it's pretty muddy on the way up and slippy on the way down, which was fun in the dark
Loch Etive & Ben Cruachan:
Beinn Fhionnlaidh from the top of the woods:
If it got dark I could follow the tree fence back from Fhionnlaidh, so went for Sgulaird first:
It was up/down most of the way with bogs and long grass peppered with knee deep holes to keep thing interesting, reached Sgulaird and had a look back:
Read other reports where folks had gone up the right hand shoulder, so I did the same. Went over Stob Gaibhre instead of going round which was unneccesarry ascent and added time:
From top of Stob Gaibhre:
Hill was great with scrambly bits etc:
Rewarded with fine view from the top of the shoulder:
Final peak:
And the route over to Fhionnlaidh, seems a bit further now:
Loch Creran, Lismore, Mull from the cairn:
Descended between the shoulders and started thinking about leaving Fhionnlaidh till another day - would be walking past the descent path, ground was hilly & boggy and I might run out of daylight. decided to walk part of the way & see how I got on. Nice views still:
Had spotted a track between the 2 hills, looked like those 8 wheeler all terrain buggies had been around here, so decided to follow it as they probably avoided the steep bits. Over to Fhionnlaidh:
Got to Fhionnlaidh and was running on fumes, so decided to head back to car while it was still light. After a snickers I got a cocoa boost so thought I'd try going up and turn around at 5:30, so I wouldn't be walking too far in the dark.
Made it to ridge:
Again the ridge was great, bit of scrambling (or bypass path), cairn at 5:30 exactly:
Sgor na h-Ulaidh:
Great views as the sun goes down, Starav:
Oh, yeah the sun's going down - head back to bealach and scoped the walk back to the trees, there's a ravine at the forestry on the far right so I had to backtrack a bit and cross a burn:
Looking over to Sgulaird from the bottom of Fhionnlaidh:
Made it to trees and followed the fence, didn't need the torch till the last path down the side to Loch Etive - this bit seemed to take forever as it was too muddy/slippy to move fast. And the deer were making weird noises which reminded me of American Werewolf in London
