by Norman_Grieve » Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:59 pm
Day return trip fae Aberdeen to Ben Aden on Tuesday, set off in heavy drizzle, negotiating morning rush hour traffic...
First pit-stop at Huntly BP station where GC picked up his 1st can of Special Brew, then Spean Bridge shop for his 2nd. Arrived at NE end of Loch Quoich, with mist well down on Gairich but just a few spots of rain. Ignoring my warnings GC then set off purposefully across the skeleton of a foot bridge, 10ft above the stream swirling around rocks. Sure enough the third plank collapsed under his weight but miraculously he somehow managed to get a foot on the next plank in the nick of time.
Just before we reached the first headland after 1/2 an hour of rough, boggy going, we encountered an ageing hillwalker tottering back towards the road supported by two sticks. He said he'd set off for Sgurr a' Choire-bheithe at 6.45am, 6 1/2 hours previously. I told him that I was well impressed as it had taken me going on 6 hours just to reach the top in a heatwave the previous July, getting back to the car at 2.30am...
Shortly after this exchange we reached a short stretch of good going along the old pre-dam track. Here GC decided that he was too shaken by his earlier bridge escapade to continue and promptly fell asleep in the warm sunshine which had broken through the rapidly clearing clouds. Despite this I made good progress along the narrow boggy lochside path in the cool fresh breeze, encountering just a few frogs and the odd dragonfly en-route.
There was a tide mark of dead grass above much of the path, c. 50ft above the level of the loch. Approaching the notorious Abhainn Chosaidh stream crossing, I was half expecting a struggle to hold onto submerged boulders, as practised many years previously in January meltwater on Geal Charn in the Monadh Liath. However, I needn't have worried as the level was very low, less than in the roadside stream and I simply walked across some flat stones.
Following a further short rough boggy section I regained the continuation of the old pre-dam track. This made for an easy hour's stroll opposite the towering Sgurr Mor across Loch Quoich, to reach the 2 short dams at the west end. A Mallard followed by 3 ducklings swam away from below the incongruous red & white life ring atop the southern dam.
Ben Aden was by now close at hand, the north face looming above Lochan nam Breac, with it's fine sandy beach at the E. end. I followed the famed James Watt path 3/4 of the way to the Lochan, then climbed up alongside barely more than a trickle of water in the Allt Achadh a'Ghlinne. Given that this is normally the wettest place in Scotland and much of the Thames & Severn valleys were underwater down south, as was Carnoustie, I felt fortune was smiling on me like the hot July afternoon sun.
However, the fresh breeze had dropped and I headed up right towards the 'sporting' ENE ridge. The mica flakes glistened in the sun, as did Lochan nam Breac looking down 2000ft between my feet. Where the ridge narrowed to a knife edge, I was accompanied by a chestnut coloured Pippet flitting along the rocks. After a sharp subsidiary top and the longest sustained section of scrambling on small rough holds, a narrow path was joined just before the summit. This came from the rocky ridge leading towards Sgurr na Ciche, 'Matterhorn of Knoydart', the top of which was still cloaked in a thin veil of mist.
The very highest point was an upturned rectangular boulder, about 10 yards from a sizeable cairn, reached in just over 4 1/2 hours from the road. Way down below the other side of the mountain was the head of Loch Nevis, deepest sea loch in Europe and round just to the west, Luinne Bheinn, my last Munro. I followed the narrow intermittent path back down to another cairn marking the top of a steep grassy rake, leading down between the cliffs towards the col with Sgurr na Ciche.
I then cut off left to follow the Allt Achadh a'Ghlinne down to the James Watt path, negotiating a belt of steep slabs around half way down. I arrived back at the dams at the west end of Loch Quoich just after 7pm, where a near gale had blown up. I remembered that I had reached this point at 11pm coming back from Sgurr a' Choire-bheithe a year earlier, in gathering darkness, so felt fairly relaxed about not having a torch with me this time...
A mile or so along the track I heard a shout, my first thought being that GC had decided to carry on going after all. However, after another shout I realised the noise was coming from across the loch and spotted a couple beside a tent & fire pitched on what would normally be an island.
As I was starting to feel a little weary I couldn't really summon up the energy to shout back or wave my arms about, which anyway seemed a bit pointless. No doubt the couple thought I was either deaf or an unsociable b*stard... I had a brief detour above the Abhainn Chosaidh, in a fruitless search for an antler which I'd left below an outcrop just above the path the previous year.
Eventually got back to the car at 10 past 10, fully expecting GC to have hitched back to Aberdeen, as on our previous outing. However, he was still there, surrounded by a huge cloud of midges, a good few of which were swallowed whilst getting changed. Half an hour later we were disappointed to find the Invergarry Hotel bar was shut but had no such problems in Fort Augustus where a couple of rather attractive Polish lassies kept us company in a kareoke bar 'til the wee small hours...
