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Hill: Sgorr na Diollaid
Date: Sunday 7th February 2010
Company: Myself, Malcolm, Bob
Time: 4Hrs 30MinsMyself, Malcolm and Bob were intending heading to Achnasheen today with the Cairngorm Club. This meet was however cancelled owing to minibus failure
.
Not wanting to miss out on ascending a hill we agreed a Plan B - head to Glen Cannich by car and ascend Sgorr na Diollaid. We were in no way disappointed as Sgorr na Diollaid proved to be a lovely wee Corbett with an 'interesting' summit.
We parked just past Muchrachd and set off walking at 09:45.
Bob and Malcolm:
Muchrachd:
On reaching the house at Muchrachd, we started the ascent up grass and snow-flattened bracken.
Looking back to Muchrachd:
As we continued to gain height, we passed through a large area of burnt heather before reaching the snowline. Thankfully much of the snow was soft underfoot and not too deep.
During the ascent we couldn't clearly make out the higher tops owing to low cloud. Thankfully the cloud lifted as we progressed towards the 777m top.
Above the snowline:
The neighbouring Graham Carn Gorm looked quite appealing. We did consider heading out to this Graham but in the end opted to leave it for another day.
Looking across to Carn Gorm:
The ascent of the 777m top proved to be easier than it looked. Much of the rock could be avoided.
Looking towards ridge leading to 777m top:
Malcolm:
En-route to 777m top:
Approaching 777m top:
On reaching the 777m top we stopped to take in the fantastic views across to the Strathfarrar hills.
We also got our first glimpse of the twin peaked summit. I don't know what Malcolm and Bob were thinking when they first saw the rocky tops. I was thinking
.
View across to Strathfarrar from 777m top:
Twin summit peaks (zoomed):
Strathfarrar hills:
We were soon moving again en-route to the twin peaks.
Bob looking across to Strathfarrar:
On reaching the twin peaks we ascended easily to the col between them and then made our way to the top of the easier, lower peak.
The easier of the twin peaks:
From a distance the summit peaks looked
. From close-up, the main summit peak looked
.
The harder of the twin peaks (summit):
We hadn't come this far not to summit, so Malcolm headed up very nimbly to the summit, without crampons. Success
.
Malcolm at summit:
Next went Bob, with crampons.
Bob at summit:
... and finally myself, also with crampons.
Myself scrambling to summit:
Myself at summit:
Getting down from the summit was even more 'interesting' than ascending it, however, we all scrambled back down safely. We then returned back to the car via the same route.
Fantastic day out.
