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Some mountains are born to be BAD. Or at least to be SCARY. To deter people rather than invite them
If you can simply ignore the monster and let him sleep, you're lucky. Worse if such bad hill becomes a menace haunting you!
Kevin once called Beinn Dearg "That F Corbett behind Liathach" where F can be interpreted as both Fantastic and Frightening. Having done the classic trio of Munros around it (some more than once), he never got around to facing the Red Hill. He admitted, it scared him a little. It was the very source, where Kevin's Corbett Classification was born
My first face to face with BD was during a winter walk to Corrie Mhic Fhearchair and since then I kept wondering how the hell does one get to the top of this mountain? It looked steep, painful and SCARY from every possible angle. A BAD one.
But any hill, no matter how bad, can be tamed if you have enough determination. Last year when we did the Horns of Alligin, I had a good look at the western end of the Red Hill and I spotted two walkers climbing up the steep slopes. Some time later I saw them again, reaching the first top. I thought - if they can do it, so can I. This is not an unbeatable challenge after all.
Regular visitors to my blog probably remember that we had to abandon last weekend's hillwalking plans due to car strike
Luckily, the problem turned out to be a minor part, didn't cost much, it was just the long cue in the garage that made us angry (wait over a week for your car to be fixed and get friendly with Beauly buses - arghhh). OK, just one of many inconveniences that happen in life.
So eventually, when the little girl was reunited with us, healthy and ready to go, we simply had to test her on Torridon roads
Weekend looked nice and dry, so I mentioned The Red Hill as a good target. Let's do that F Corbett behind Liathach at last! We've been talking about it for the last six years...
We decided on the classic circuit from Corrie Mhic Nobuil, which is the obvious way to climb Beinn Dearg:
In this TR there will be a lot of "one word of warning" sentences. The first warning comes even before the walk starts
The Coire Mhic Nobuil car park is not very big, so on a sunny Saturday/Sunday it is likely to be full! That's what happened to us, we came to find there was no space left to park
Another car parked on the grass along the road but we didn't fancy that solution and drove up the road for another 500m, where (thank heavens for little miracles!) we found a small, off-road parking for maybe 3 cars. There was a van parked there already, but just about enough space for us to squeeze in.
Two good girls
Midges were vicious to begin with, but as we started walking, they disappeared only to be replaced by keds. I don't know what's worse? Keds don't usually bite humans, but they try to get attached to you the way ticks do. One even tried to get into my ear - yuck, yuck yuuuck!!!! Last year was a year for horseflies/clegs, this year is one for keds, I'm dreading to think what will happen next year... Killer hornets? Blood-sucking jumping spiders? Venomous frogs???
Well, keds or no keds, I was determined to have fun anyway!
Our target hill seen from the footbridge over Abhainn Coire Mhic Nobuil:
In Torridon you should be spoiled for views. Sadly, the day was horribly hazy. I haven't seen such a bad haze for a long time! And it was simply the dust in the air, the pollution blown in from over the mainland Europe by southern winds. At least the air was warm and the day was quiet, but even the closest mountains seemed blurred by the overwhelming haze. So apologies now, dear readers, for lack of good panoramas in this report. Not my fault
Misty Beinn Dearg in front of us:
We followed the path for the Horns of Alligin over two footbridges and as far as NG882602, where the path divides (a small cairn marks the spot). We saw a few other walkers in front of us, heading for the steep ascent to the Horns, but we took the right branch and continued due north under the steep flanks of Beinn Alligin...
Steep, steep:
The path is a bit less obvious and boggy in a few places, but it can be followed easily, deep into Bealach a'Chomhla. The hill behind me in this picture is Baosbheinn, only about 5km away in a straight line and visibility should be crystal-clear... Yep, SHOULD be...
So there won't be many breathtaking panoramas in this story, but there will be lots of pictures of rocky slopes. Kevin still managed to take over 400 photos, most of them picturing me scrambling over rocky outcrops. Because Beinn Dearg is scrambler's little heaven... But we will come to that later. At the moment, we were still on the path between the Red Hill and the Horns, gazing up to the latter... The less known side of Alligin:
The path peters out eventually and this area could be a nightmare in wet weather, luckily after a week without rain most of the bog was dry:
We crossed Allt a'Bhealaich and headed for our target hill:
We were supposed to climb this:
Beinn Dearg, as a mountain born BAD, does not make life easy for you. There is no easy way up this sandstone wall, it's steep everywhere. It's just a matter of careful navigation and picking the best possible line up the steep slopes.
We took a 5 min break at the bottom of the almost-vertical wall, put some sugar in our system (we were definitely going to need fuel!) and discussed possible ways of tackling the monster. The most obvious line of approach was a grassy "gully" (marked in yellow). But when we reached the bottom of it, we discovered there was a tiny stream dripping down this line. Not much water in it, but enough to make the ground wet, boggy and very slippery. Therefore, we preferred to stick to much dryer, rocky slope and took the scramble face-on (marked in pink):
Views were still very hazy, Baosbheinn just about visible. Such a shame, but on the other hand, it allowed us to concentrate on the slope in front of us rather than on what lies far away
...and in front of us was one neverending, steep slope with plenty of opportunities for scrambling. We manoeuvred among countless rocky terraces, sometimes taking the easier, grassy ground, sometimes sticking to the rocky areas. All in all, I loved it!
Beinn Alligin and the illustration, how steep it was:
A couple of photos taken when looking DOWN. Ooops... Scary indeed. Don't try it when you suffer from vertigo! (mine's definitely gone).
Looking UP was not much better...
Kevin confused... Thinking about the best way of attacking the wall:
After just under 300m of relentless ascent, the slopes become tad easier:
I must say, navigation is important on this hill (even if it looks like a no-brainer push up). Because the slope is so steep and countless vertical rocks obscure the way, you can hardly see what's above you and if you pick the wrong line you might have to descend a few metres or traverse alongside a grassy ledge to pick a better line of ascent. Could be pain in *** in bad weather conditions and even we found the terrain challenging. There is no obvious path most of the way up and if the ground is soaked... well, a recipe for disaster. We found it much easier to scramble over the rocky terraces though we had to use all fours in a few places, but it all added up to the fun!
As much as we could see from higher up - Beinn Alligin (just about) and nothing more...
Panther testing her paws on sandstone:
Kevin on all fours
We were making a very slow progress until we reached the ridge itself. Now it all looked plain sailing all the way tot he lower top. There is some minor scrambling to tackle (or lots and lots of easy scrambling if you want to
) but the angle is much less acute. The summit of Beinn Dearg can be seen to the very right:
The mist was still horrible and we didn't expect it to get any better - here, Beinn an Eoin hardly visible:
Kevin stopped again to snap photos, but they all came out so hazy that I decided to skip them here... Instead, let's concentrate on more fun with sandstone!!!
View down into a large gully:
Like a giant staircase:
We reached the first top, Stuc Loch na Cabhaig (889m) and decided to have our lunch here - we were both desperately hungry after all that heavy exercise!
Not much to see, sadly. We could hardly make out the opposite end of the ridge. Liathach was just a phantom...
...and so was Beinn Eighe:
View north should be the most spectacular, but all we could see were the misty shapes of Beinn an Eoin and Beinn a'Chearcaill (the latter is a Graham and must be a fine viewpoint - high on my to-do list):
After a 20 min break for refuelling and resting, we set off to reach the summit of Beinn Dearg. The mighty mountain has not yet revealed all its secrets and we soon discovered more easy (optional) scrambling on the way down from the first top:
The final ascent to the summit (just over 100m) seems very rocky and airy from this angle, but the view is misleading. It is mostly just walking up on a path - the path bypasses all difficulties so basically one can reach the top now without having to put hands on the rock...
...which was NOT the case for us. The bypass path is slightly to the right. i took the straight line up the terraces. Good training session!
Conditions improved ever so slightly - it was still hazy but Beinn Eighe seemed more real now...
More fun with giant Lego blocks
We took a lot of time, no hurry. We scrambled over different shapes and sizes of rocks, posing for silly pictures (most are too stupid to show in public domain). I climbed to the top of a small sandstone tower:
From above, the "tower" looks more like a round table
Stuc Loch na Cabhaig behind:
From another angle and slightly higher, the final scramble can be seen. I found the rocks safer than the bypass path (at least for me, it looked dodgy):
The summit area is flat and scattered with more rocks, so more silly poses were taken before we aimed for the summit cairn:
Corbett No. 76 but nevermind the numbers - this is the F Corbett behind Liathach, it's where it all started from. Another menace put to sleep. Or simply - another good day on the hills!
It would be perfect but for the lack of distant views. But i was already getting used to the twilight zone...
Liathach still behaving like a ghostly apparition:
Kevin bagging his almost-birthday Corbett (only 4 days away from the B-day counts as a gift):
After a short rest on the top of the Red Hill we continued along the ridge. I knew from previous reports I read, that on the way down we would encounter some more scrambling and soon we saw the SCARY part:
This tower is supposed to be the trickiest part of Beinn Dearg traverse. The scrambling part is hidden from view now and we really were not sure what to expect. But we were ready to give it a go:
Descending from the summit to the first of the two outcrops required some more fun and games (again, optional, but I was desperate to take every opportunity - I'm training for AE ridge!):
Looking down can make one dizzy. The exposure is sensational
Getting ready to face the tower:
Here, there is a bypass path to the right, on the grassy slope, but it DOES NOT avoid the most difficult scramble on the other side of the tower anyway, so I didn't see much point in taking it...
The ridge is narrow and good head for heights is required (ha! I never thought I'd write that about myself
) but going UP the western side is a piece of cake:
Kevin making his way through some rocks:
It's the eastern face of the tower that people find challenging. Gulp! A short glimpse down and I knew this would be all fours experience, though it didn't seem too bad at all:
There is no easy way off the tower, no bypass or escape route, it's vertical everywhere and the western flanks really are the only sensible route down:
It's all a matter of bum shuffling
Basically, there are 3 chimneys to negotiate. The first (highest) of them is the most difficult and here I made a small mistake by not facing the rock. To get down with my rucksack still on, I had to "bulge outwards" and struggled a bit to keep my balance. Kevin was behind me, so as soon as I scrambled down, I told him - face the rock. He passed me his camera and walking pole, turned to face the rock and... he was down in a few second
My little rock monkey
An example of bum-shuffling:
The chimney from below. I believe going up it would be much easier than going down. Scrambling is always easier up than down... there are plenty of good hand/footholds and I found the sandstone had a good grip, at least in dry conditions
We continued down to the second chimney. This one was easier and we were down without any difficulties.
The third chimney was the easiest of them all. Looking into it from above, it seemed smaller than the first two:
View from below:
I definitely was enjoying it and felt a bit disappointed when it was over... I busied myself filming Kevin on his way down the third obstacle:
We descended to more even ground and took another short break - this time to photograph the tower from every possible angle. You must admit that it looks rather intimidating from this side:
A wider angle. As you see, there is little space for manoeuvres here. SMC book suggests, that one can bypass the whole tower by "traversing ledges on the south side of the ridge". The north side is plain vertical wall, so no chance here. But even the southern ledges dont look inviting and we agreed that sticking to the rock is most likely the safer option:
Yep, if I return to Beinn Dearg and traverse it east-west, I will surely give this route a miss:
So that was all the difficulties behind and now all that was left was finding the way down. We took some more photos of Coire Mor and the tower from different points of view:
...before descending the easy slopes of grass and flat rocks, down to the col over Coire Beag.
Most folks add a Graham top, Carn na Feola, to the traverse, but we noticed that we were running late (spent too much time fooling about on the main ridge) so we decided to skip it this time and began making our way down the grassy slopes, starting from the lowest point of the col and aiming across the steep side of the mountain.
The descent was far from easy - we had to avoid a few grassy gullies, not because they were technically difficult, but because there was a stream running in each one of them, which made the ground wet and slimy, slippery and unstable. We slowly progressed downhill, trying to stay on dry ground. Eventually, the angle began to ease off:
We aimed for the Coire Mhic Nobuil path and after trudging through some wet ground, we reached it at NG919599. Now, we could enjoy the walk back on a good path and not worry about time
Looking back up, this wall seems horribly steep!
As we walked back to the car park, the haze has eventually thinned (too late for us) and Liathach returned to its normal state:
The F Corbett behind Liathach... Scary? Not any more! Maybe it was born BAD, but I'm not afraid of it!
The tower - zoomed:
Not so much twilight zone any more - we enjoyed a sunny late afternoon:
I know that 8.5 hours to do this (and without including Carn na Feola) would make some of you laugh, but I'm not ashamed of my curiosity. Because the views were obscured by the haze, we had a good excuse to spend time fooling with the rocky scrambles - we completely lost the sense of time! Who cares about the ticking clock anyway - it's about having fun, isn't it?
A short summing up. Beinn Dearg is NOT a mountain for rookies. Steep and mostly pathless. Having said that, there is very little technical stuff here, at least nothing that can't be avoided. I wouldn't recommend the bypass on the tower though. The Red Hill is tiring, it will squeeze the last drop of sweat out of you, but oh my, it is so worth it. Plus this is the only mountain of the Big Torridon Four, that is not crowded even on a sunny weekend day. We didn't meet a single soul on the ridge (though the car park was full! No one apart from us went for BD). The only people we noticed, were a few groups of walkers on the Horns of Alligin. So a total solitude and silence. What more could you ask for?
Funny, if Beinn Dearg was two feet higher and therefore a Munro, it would welcome hoards of people, especially in summer months. So maybe it's better for the Red Hill, that it retained its Corbett status. It will stand there, waiting patiently for the few brave walkers who dare to visit. And it will reward them with a day to remember. So maybe I was wrong about the F Corbett behind Liathach. Maybe it wasn't born BAD. Maybe... maybe it's just lonely, overlooked and forgotten about.