Four days around Cannich - Corbetts & Eagles

[weaselmaster]

With a 4 day weekend to hand we'd been hoping for a continuation of the recent good weather - clear skies and sunshine. Glen Dessarry featured strongly on the radar - time to get some of the "awkward squad" like Ben Aden under the belt. However as the week preogressed the weather forecast became ever more awful - constant rain, gales, snow, plagues of locusts - you know the drill. It didn't look quite as bad up by Cannich, so in some desperation to get some hills in I decided to head up to Cannich Caravan site after work on Thursday and risk it. Trouble was this would involve some lovely parts of the country that I really wanted to see in good weather - maybe keeping fingers crossed would work. I'd emailed the campsite in advance - they were really laid back, no problem about arriving late, would catch up with us at some time over the weekend. Arrived about 8.30 and pitched the tent in a hollow in the woods - lovely spot this. Had already snaffled sandwiches in the car on the way up, so a quick beer then bed - it was going to be a lengthy day on Friday.

The forecast for Friday purported to be the least awful of the weekend, so made a decision to do the longest walk that day - down Glen Affric for Aonach Shassuin & Carn a'Choire Gharbh. When route planning I'd noted that there was a Top of Sail a'Chaorainn within spitting distance of the route, so that would be included as well. Off we set driving down lovely Glen Affric, arriving at the parking spot just after 8am. Some workmen around, no other cars. Packed up, taking crampons after BlackPanther's report from last weekend and also taking trainers to ease the journey back. Beautiful, peaceful meandering alongside the river, the eye drawn to the majesty of Sgurr na Lapaich across the river (a Top that so far eludes me). Past the picturesque Affric Lodge and the other spurs of the Mullardoch hills come into view - An Tudair & an Tudair Beag -oh I can't wait to be back amongst those beauties. We took a left turn down the right of way and entered some boggy terrain alongside the Allt Garbh, then through a deer fence and onto the hillside. I took the wrong turn at the sign for Glen Affric and started walking East, with Creag Dubh in my sights - thinking that doesn't look quite right...quick look at the GPS and we about turn

View down Loch Beinn a'Mheadhoin
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Near start of the walk down Affric
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Sgurr na Lapaich
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Affric Lodge
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Pretty riverside
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Mullardochs
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in case you needed to know...
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First sight of Shassuin
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Going the correct way, it isn't long before Aonach Shassuin and An Elric come into view. The path beside the river is quite boggy so we head a bit higher up, contouring round the hillside between Cnap na Stri and Shassuin. The beautiful white capped hills across the loch still pull my eyes. Finally we arrive at the snow field at the foot of Ceann Aonach Shassuin - snow crisp and icy in places. As the angle of ascent gets steeper we pull on the crampons and jag our way to the top, where the snow is soft and powdery. The wind is more powerful here and makes the journey over the flat hilltop quite unpleasant. Noticing a shelter past the cairn I think we'll stop there for lunch, but it provides only poor shelter. We can make out little of the surrounding hills due to clag, which is a pity. Trace our steps back to the 873 point and head down heathery slopes to Bealach an Amais, losing rather more height than I would like . Then it's up the steepish slopes of An Elric, with some clearing of the weather allowing views back up the Glen. Now it's a matter of crossing the flat bealach to Tigh Mor na Seilge, an awkward to reach Top of Sail Chaorainn. I'd done Carn na Coire Mheadoin when I climbed Sail Chaorainn the first time, so this was a pleasing opportunity to pick up an otherwise difficult to reach Top. I was *happy* to reach this one

These Mullardoch outliers still look sweet
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Up Ceann Aonach Shassuin
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Summit cairn & Shelter
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View to An Elric
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Ascending An Elric, Glen Affric behind
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Towards Kintail hills
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Mullach fraoch Choire
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pano
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Ceathreamhan
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top of Tigh Mor na Seilge
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A happy weasel
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Sail Chaorainn
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Across the way I could see the snowy pinnacles of Mullach fraoch Choire and beyond the stern peak of Sgurr nan Ceamreathanan. It looked quite a climb up to Carn na Coire Mheadhoin from here - glad I wasn't going that way. The sky was leaden and more snow seemed likely - we turned northwards along the curving ridge towards Carn a'Choire Ghairbh. More descent followed by easy ascent over heather and peat hags. Allison was struggling by this point and giving a reasonable impression of a zombie in need of some food. We slogged to the stone cairn, realised this wasn't the summit and headed for the pimple-like pile of rocks some way further on to claim another summit. Down a line of fence posts then another small rise to Carn Glas Iochdarach. From here on the way back was spread out in front of us - Loch Beinn a'Mheadhoin lay beyond the duns and greens of bracken and trees. Descent was quite steep in places, with pockets of deep snow lingering on, but we reached the edge of Coire Dubh, skirted round the plantations and walked alongside the river til we reached the proper track. It was a relief to put the trainers on for the last few km's back to the car. An excellent - if quite hard - day out.

Towards Carb a'Choire Ghairbh
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Not the summit!
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That's the summit
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Towards Carn Glas Iochdarach
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The route back
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Stats
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Back at the tent it was a feast of curry - very tasty, a new sauce variety with baby aubergines - mmmm. Lay awake listening to the owls, woodpecker and some gadawful screechy thing that sounded as if it was either being murdered (slowly) or murdering something else (slowly) for quite a long time. Otherwise it was just the wind soughing through the trees. i knew that Saturday was meant to be a very windy day (55-75mph winds) so had hoped we'd be ok on Beinn a'Bac' ach Ard. Drove up to Struay, arriving just before 9 to see a busy parking bay - maybe 12 cars. Then *the gates opened* and all the cars went off up Glen Strathfarrar. Good luck to them, but in retrospect I'd be surprised if - given the conditions - anyone got the Strathfarrar Four climbed that day. We were left alone to get our kit ready and walk off along the road towards our objective. Down here it looked quite tranquil - mqybe the winds were a forecasting error? We turned up at Culligran Power Station onto a smaller track the wended its way through birchtrees then followed the power lines until reaching a wee house at a dam. A new bulldozed track has been constructed here presumably for the proposed ABO windfarm - disgraceful. We did make use of the road rather than the boggy hillside to gain height then turned off towards Creag an Gharbh Choire. At the bealach with Bac'Ach Ard the wind really started to blow. Progress up the final 150m to the summit was grim - I tried to walk on grassy sections wherever possible to avoid being blown face down onto the rocks. A stag wandered past near the summit ridge, showing little discomfort at the blasts. Finally attained the cairn and nipped round the leeward side for some food. Was not easy drinking coffee when the wind takes it out of your cup first

Campsite
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Along the road
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track by the Power station
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powerlines
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dam
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New Track
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Strathfarrar Munros
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Cairn - Beinn a'Bac'Ach Ard
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it's very windy!!
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View along to Sgurr a'Phollain
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We looked along the ridge towards Sgurr a'Phollain and down to Carn na Ghablach. Looked quite grassy - should be OK in the wind. However, getting down the first 50m from 'Ard was indeed 'ard - I ended up being blown on my bum for yards across the snow on several occaisions. The clag had also decided to make an appearance and we stumbled about in peat hags with little sense of direction for some time over the intermediate summit between 'Ard and Phollain. We did reach Phollain but the continuation of the route passed over some very dodgy looking snow - firstly it was convex, so I couldn't see what was at the bottom, secondly there were some sizable collapsed areas over water courses and thirdly the overall visibility was poor. There seemed no way around it and it appeared we'd have to head back over 'Ard, back into that wind. Fortunately there were some snow free areas down into Coire Mheadhoin and we decided to try our luck down there - it could only be boggy . Wasn't too bad as it turned out, and we made for the Loch na Beiste - Bac'Ach Ard looked fairly impressive from this angle. Back to the car over some pleasant fields, fortunately the stags had all gone elsewhere when we walked though their field. A very tasty soy mince chili for tea tonight.

Beinn a'Bac'Ach Ard
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Down to Loch na Beiste
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Sunday and it was a drive up to Strathconon for a double header - Meallan nan Uan and Sgurr a'Mhuillin. I'd never been along here before, but Allison had stayed in one of the houses just at the start of the walk on a holiday some years ago. Lovely scenes driving along Loch Meig. Parked in the field at Strathanmore and set off immediately up the side of the hill - no preamble here, no lengthy walk in, just out the car and straight up! Sgurr a'Mhuillin looked impressive through the intermittent clag. we made our way up Creag Ruadh first, impressed by the ridge along to Meallan nan Uan. These are a couple of smashing summits, much more impressive than I'd been expecting. We met more snow on the flanks of Meallan Nan Uan, but soft enough for boots to deal with. Arriving at the summit we watched the snow fall off to the south and could see another band coming our way. We hunklered down in a little hollow just below the summit cairn to have our lunch and enjoy the visibility while it lasted. There followed one of those moments that happen only occasionally and stay with you forever - as we sat admiring the view to Sgurr a'Mhuillin, a golden eagle swept round the cairn from behind us, passed over our heads no more than 6 feet away before soaring off along the valley. I could see every feather, hear the wind as it swept through his feathers - ah superb moment.

The Hills from the road
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Sgurr a'Mhuillin
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Creag Ruadh, looking over Strathconon
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Towards Meallan nan Uan
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Nan Uan/a'Mhuillin
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Sgurr a'Mhuillin
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Loch Coire a'Mhuillin
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Descent route - before the blizzard
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Top - Meallan nan Uan
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Weather coming in
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The weather was once again upon us as we made our way down to Carnan Fuar. We'd originally planned to take in the two outlying tops to the NW but in blizzard conditions with no visibility we decided that we'd simply grab the remaining Corbett and make it easy on ourselves. So we skirted round the sides of Loch Coire a'Mhuillinn and ascended the gentle slopes up to Sgurr a'Mhuillin in snow covered heather. Little visibility at the summit, not much more on the descent down the steep SE nose - patches of icy snow made axes necessary. Got to the base of the craggy part then made a beeline across swampy bogland towards the ascent route. Five hours all in - back at the car and a pleasant return drive along the glen, stopping off at the Co-Op in Beauly to get some fresh bread and Cherry Pie for desert.

Back to Winter!
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Approaching summit of Sgurr a'Mhuillin
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Craggy nose on way down
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Stats
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A wild night followed - big winds swept through the trees around the tent and I lay awake wondering if one of the pines was going to crash down on top of us - not the most comforting of thoughts I was also wondering if we would ba able to make Sgurr na Diolliad, a rocky peak, if the winds kept up the following morning. Forecast was for sunshine for the majortiy of the day, which seemed a little weird, but I wasn;t going to complain. Got the tent packed away and off by 10ish (with the clocks having gone forward that wasn't too bad) and drove along the road to Mullardoch for about 5 miles, parking just before the new bridge at Muchrach'd. It was clearly going to be another day of snowshowers and blue skies - we started off up Carn Doire Leithe with big snowflakes caressing us. Over to our left we would sometimes be afforded glimpses of the Mullardoch hills - clad in white raiment - indeed a fair amount of snow seemed to have fallen in the last few days. After the 496 height we were galumphing through soft deep snow without much idea where we were going until we reached the 652 spot and could see the rocky outline of the first section of the summit ridge ahead. We ascended, the top covered in large grey rocky projections. Only once we reached the top of this could we finally see the black rocks of the summit poking up like the Saddle the hill is named after. Some icy sections up to the very top, but nothing tricky. We weren't sure which was the higher spot so climbed both before stopping in a hollow for our lunch. Once again the weather changed and the blizzard started up again, obliterating our footprints from the ascent. On the way back down it was Toll Creagach that caught the eye, atop the twisty turny lochs heading to the Mullardoch dam. I could hear eagles calling, and sure enough, as we got near to Carn Doire Leithe we could make out a pair skimming the skies across the other side of the river, before a posse of raven set off to harry them.

Getting ready
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Western Outliers
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Start of the summit ridge
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Towards Mullardoch
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Whale sized rocks
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Finally = the Saddle summit
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View from the other top
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Toll Creagach & Mullardoch dam
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View back to the bridge
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Stats
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What a fine long weekend it turned out to be - 6 Corbetts and a Top safely delivered and some eagles to have enjoyed too. Indeed that wasn't the end of them - as we were driving away from Cannich a pair of eagles flew from the road up into the trees as we passed by in the car. In over two and a half years of walking, eagles have been such an infrequent visitor to me that to see them thrice in a weekend is a real pleasure. This is such a superb part of the country - must spend more time up nearby in the months ahead.

[Mal Grey]

What an excellent trip, and a story very nicely described. Scottish winter at its best - snow and challenging wind but amazing views when the weather clears.

[Beaner001]

Belter of a weekend there Al, great stuff on seeing the eagles, I got the same luck doing the Mullardoch South Munros. Then the following day saw two more on the road up Loch Quoich Buggers had been avoiding me for years then three in the space of two days

[BlackPanther]

Fantastic, glad you had a good long weekend Yes, weatherman was going over the top (literally ).

Having done all of these hills, some more than once, I 'd say that my favourite is still Bac'Ach Ard, but what a mess has been recently done to the access road! That track in the forest, above the power station, used to be one of my best places for mushroom picking, now it's all bulldozed over

We picked the new car last weekend so spent time driving around rather than climbing mountains. Nothing lost though, Easter Hols are coming!

[rockhopper]

Another lazy, restful weekend for the two of you then, eh ?
I really must try to get down Glen Affric some time - does look great - cheers