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Since putting my name down for the WH meet, I'd been a mixture of excitement and apprehension (mainly due to reading stories of previous whisky consumption
).
Having spent Thursday preparing for the journey to Torridon by picking up a bargain £20 three day hire of Scarpa Mantas, Ice Axe and Crampons from TISO, and a vehicular near-disaster. I was finally ready. Friday morning duly arrived and I awoke at 4:15am to get some breakfast, and make the strongest cup of coffee I've ever had. It kind of helped. I took advantage of the quiet roads to hit Perth quickly, then onto the A9, about 95% awake. I was soon 100% awake when setting off a speed camera outside Perth
Anyway, 3.5 hours and 190 miles later I duly arrived at Insherin, followed shortly by Peter Tindal (who i later discovered lives a literal stone's throw from my flat in Forfar
) then Evie and Euan, and Kevsbald. After introductions and sorting ourselves out, we set off on a cracking, clear spring morning.
- The walk in, towards Loch Maree
- It's somewhere up there!
This extremely pleasant walk continues for a couple of miles, crosses a footbridge, then branches off uphill. We stopped off briefly at a waterfall for some photos.
It was now time to get moving uphill. The next section was quite hard going, especially in the sun, and I was glad of a few stops to take a drink, catch my breath, and take some photos of the stunning surroundings.
- Back towards Loch Maree. Meall a'Ghublais dominating the skyline.
As we gained height, the views really opened up
Finally the steepish bit was over. We now had a relatively flat trudge through Coire na Sleaghaich, then exited via the left Corrie wall.
- Coire na Sleaghaich.
The views at the top of this were truly magnificent. It was like walking into a calendar. I could have taken a thousand photos and still not do this justice.
- A stunning array of Torridon's peaks
After half an hour here, drinking in the views, a spot of lunch (I was literally heartbroken to discover i'd left chocolate in the car), we headed off for the short climb to the twin lochans. For some inexplicably stupid reason I didn't take any pictures of this section. However, they were completely frozen over. There is a steep but relatively brief climb after the lochans, and the summit is ever closer. The trig point is not the actual summit. That's another short walk on and is 1 metre higher
- Trig Point
We also surveyed a possible descent via the North Ridge and Sgurr an Thuill Bhain.
- North Ridge and Sgurr an Thuill Bhain (top)
A short few minutes later, we reached the snowy summit area and cairn. The views were nothing short of incredible, across to Beinn Alligin and the other Torridon peaks, with the views to Loch Maree and sea beyond, and also the stunning Fisherfield area. I could have happily stayed there for hours.
- Loch Maree and it's Islands
- Beinn Alligin (zoomed)
- Kevsbald returning from a quick jaunt out to a rocky viewpoint
- Fisherfield
- An Teallach (i think) (zoomed)
After a good while at the summit, we took the decision to head down view the North ridge and it's top. This was a pleasant walk, with a couple of exposed short, narrow stretches. The views remained ridiculously good.
- Across Coire na Sleaghaic to Sgurr Dubh and beyond.
- View back along the ridge towards Slioch's summit
That was the fun part largely over
Poor sock choice was now resulting in sore feet and the decent was a hot, painful and tedious one to finally reach the corrie floor. After this followed another long descent. I took this final shot of the Torridon peaks before packing up the camera.
The walk out seemed to take an eternity, and it was with quite some relief that the car park was reached and i could change into fresh socks and trainers. I'm considering selling the other pair used on the hill to North Korea as a biological weapons of some kind.
A short drive to Kinlochewe and I was soon in the hotel, enjoying a wonderful pint of lager and meeting the rest of the Walkhighlands crew. A fine bunch indeed. Big thanks to Kev, Pete, Evie and Euan. A pleasure to walk with.
