Finishing the Grey Corries

[heatheronthehills]

We parked the van at the Highland Council car park at the lower falls....a £10 charge for the day! We cycled up to the upper falls car park and walked the beautiful gorge up to the lush pastures around the Steall Hut. The waterfall is stunning, a cascade blasting down several hundred feet of dark rock. We left the tourists behind, many attempting to cross the Steall bridge, and walked up the wide glen past the large footprint of the ruined settlement and then along another couple of km before making our way up the steep grassy slopes to the bealach between Sgurr Choinnich Mor and Sgurr Choinnich Beag. The final pull up to the summit revealed the shining scree ridge of the Grey Corries beyond, sparkling in the evening sun. We stayed a while and had a 2nd lunch...we had set out at 12.30 and had lunch first! We eventually pulled ourselves away from the views...clear panoramas all round and made our way down. We met a group of about 10 people doing a 4 day charity walk where they climb the height of Everest in munros. They had done the Mamores the previous day, Ben Nevis, Aonach Mor and Beag today and were about to go over the Grey Corries to the bothy for the night. I felt exhausted just hearing their plans!! On our descent we went out over the top of Sgurr Choinnich Beag and disturbed a ptarmigan with 3 very young chicks, all golden fluff and ginger wings.