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Corbetts: Sguman Coinntich
Date walked: 30/10/2008
Time taken: 3 hours
Distance: 9 km
Ascent: 880m
Weather: Cold, clear and sunny
Time to pass some time writing up a couple of old reports. Some pretty short days here, but with stunning scenery. Please excuse the lack of photos - I was using an old-skool digital camera from work which only had a 20MB memory card!
At the time I was fortunate to have a series of site visits up and down the west coast, giving me many opportunities to shoehorn a quick hill into the day. On site again in Lochcarron and Kyle, and the afternoon was looking stunning. I thought I'd exhausted most new possibilities in the area, before realising that shorn of Faochag and Aonach Buidhe, this hill was a fairly short day out on its own.
Getting away from a meeting at a reasonable time, I parked up at the Kililan roadhead and started walking. Loch Long and the foot of Glen Elchaig is a beautiful spot, removed from the bustle of Kintail by just a few short miles of narrow road. I performed my usual getting lost routine on the way up, scrambling over the boundary walls above Kililan, but I was soon on the stalker's path up the Choire Mhor. This was widened into an ATV track, and made for easy walking. The path carried on less prominently after the ATV track dipped down to the river. I was already in the shade here, with a few hours of daylight left.
Initially, I thought of heading to the end of the corrie and getting onto the summit from the Bealach Mhic Bheathain. However, I was walking in some of the first significant snow of the year with no axe, and was aware of an awkward step, so decided to cross the burn and hit the northern slopes. The more conventional route may well have been OK, but I didn't have time to reach the summit if it was difficult enough to have to backtrack from.
The northern slopes were easy enough, if a bit steep, and the final section along the western ridge to the summit felt adventurous, even though it was also straightforward. Views from the summit were spectacular, particuarly the short range one back down to Loch Long. I had encountered a little snow on Beinn Bhan (Glen Loy) the previous week, but this was the first walk of the season which felt like a proper winter's day (even if the snow was light and unconsolidated).
Loch Alsh and Skye from the summit:
Back down to Loch Long:
NE into the Mullardoch/Monar interior:
Across Ben Kililan to the Cuillin:
Faochag and the back of Kintail:
I had a good ten minutes on the summit, but it was cold so I didn't hang around any longer. Being too short of time to carry on to Faochaig, I retraced my steps by the same route. It was much faster on the way down! At the bottom, I managed to find my way to the correct track, and didn't have to climb any walls. An enjoyable afternoon in the first proper snows of the year. Something I seem to have missed this year.
Looking back up Loch Long to Sguman Coinntich:
