Sgurr a’Mhaoraich on a great Good Friday

[PeteR]

Maybe not the most ideal preparation for a 500 mile trip from Ayrshire to East Sussex on the Friday night/Saturday morning to pick up my boys and then a further 180 odd mile trip along the cost for a week away with them in Weymouth, but I decided on a 333 mile round trip to Loch Quoich and to tackle the majestic peak of Sgurr a’Mhaoraich as my preparation for said trip

And well worth it it was too

This little beauty had been on my to-do list for some while, with a recent attempt not even getting beyond the main road on account of an icy looking single track road I didn’t fancy attempting to write my car off down

And the extra few days delay was well worth the wait Oh yeah, this is a special hill, with great views all over the place. North, south, east and west

And really there is not much else to say. Hopefully the photos will say it all But here’s my summary of the day

Weather – excellent........but the photos will demonstrate that

Route – an excellent stalkers path up to the ridge and then a pleasant stravaig over to the3 final (steep) climb to the summit. Needed crampons eventually for the final climb as the ice was pretty interesting on the steep ground

Scrambly bit on the ridge - not technically difficult, but I still managed to heave myself over the last couple of steps with all the grace and poise of a Hippo

Views – just stunning, and hopefully the photos will show that

Smile on my face – from ear to ear....but thankfully the photos won’t show that

So, after much thought and discussion and debate with MrsR here are the 25 photos I thought best encapsulated the day

The first hurdle of the day - wouldn't shift no matter what I did to try and cajole it :-)

Early view of the beautiful Gairich

Glen Dessary Munros

Gleouraich

Oooohhh, yeah!

Zooming in on the Ben

By the dry stone wall

Stravaig to the summit

The scramble - taken head on :-)

View from the top of the scramble

View back down the ridge

The final climb to the top - steeper than it looked, but I think that was down to the snow coverage on the day

Gairich and Loch Quoich

Summit cairn

A short summit video panorama

Stunning Loch Hourn and the Wild Bounds of Knoydart

Forcan ridge and the Saddle I believe

Gairich again

Mountain porn

More mountain porn

Cuillins and the Scree Hill

Glen Dessary on the way down

Ladhar Bheinn

Gairich, Quoich and distant pals

Scree Hill

Looking back up my route of descent from close to the roadside at the end of the walk

[rockhopper]

Excellent day for it, Pete - really enjoyed this area, looking forward to going back some time. Your photos certainly do it justice ! - cheers

[dogplodder]

Pete your photos are first class!

I loved this hill and it's so good to see it again with its winter coat on!

[kevsbald]

Have this one planned for next Thursday - fantastic photaes Pete.

[BlackPanther]

Loch Quosh Munros becoming popular for WalkHighlanders Anybody else visited Sgurr a’Mhaoraich for Easter?

We had a short debate, standing below the scrambly section - should we do it? should we not? We watched another person tackling the tricky bit and he managed all right, so we decided to follow. It looked worse than it was.
Hope you don't mind me adding a couple of pics (snapshots from video cam, so quality not as good):

Somebody beat us to the scrambling experience...

...and he is doing pretty well!

Looking down at the "mini-pinnacles" :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think snow did thaw a bit from Friday to Monday. But it snowed again since, so now the ridge must be white again
Cheers!

[pigeon]

Superb pete,one of my favourite hills this,good seeing it with a bit of snaw