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Munros: Sgor Gaoith
Date: 30/06/2015.
Distance: 19km.
Ascent: 1020m.
Time taken: 3 hours, 50 minutes.
Weather: Warm and windy. Couple of showers, cloud down on plateau.
Most summers I like to try and get onto the hills after work, but unless I'm out on site somewhere interesting, the scramble to leave work at a decent time, have the car on hand and escape Inverness seems to get more difficult every year. With a sudden heat wave appearing on Tuesday, and fortunately having the car close by, I was heading down the A9 by 4:30. The weather forecast wasn't entirely promising, but buoyed by the high temperatures and sunshine in town, I decided to think big. Rather than sticking to my heathery plan around the moors above Tomatin, I continued past Aviemore and down to Glen Feshie.
By the time I'd parked at the carpark near Auchlean, the showery weather was pushing in from the south and the wind was much stronger than in Inverness. It was still above 20 degrees though, so pretty benign.
A shower began as I passed Auchlean, and I decided to get straight on the hill rather than carrying on down the glen to the shoulder of Meall nan Sleac. I'd never been up the new path onto Carn Ban Mor before, although I'd seen a couple of photos to prepare me for the motorway that it is. My route choices were somewhat made up as I went along - would I head towards Sgor Gaoith or back to the rim of Coire Garbhlach once on the plateau?
Meall nan Sleac from Auchlean carpark:
Auchlean:
I passed a couple of people descending and kept moving through the worst showers, and then it was sunny again. However the cap of cloud on the plateau didn't lift so I doubted I'd be lucky enough to get the views down onto Loch Einich that I wanted.
Carn Ban Mor from Glen Feshie:
Across Glen Feshie to Carn Dearg Mor:
Geal Charn:
On the plateau, it was a sharp left in the clag, and in no time I was on Carn Ban Mor (which I'd somehow not been up before). I took a bearing from the summit cairn to Fuaran Diotach (the breakfast well). There were more direct routes to Sgor Gaoith, but I like this little corner with the ruined bothy. Once there the cloud almost cleared, and I got a brief glance of sunshine on the moorland leading out to Loch Morlich. Should have gone there!
Fuaran Diotach and the remains of the old bothy:
Back in the cloud, I part walked, part jogged to the summit of Sgor Gaoith, which I reached just before 7:30 pm. I sat around for almost 10 minutes hoping for the clag to clear, but despite a couple of promising holes above, it didn't. Although I thought I'd return by Meall Dubhag to the south, I changed my mind and kept going towards Sgoran Dubh Mor. In 2008 I found my way up onto the plateau from Loch Einich - quite an interesting way up. I got a very brief glimpse down there just now, but the cloud was filling the glen, so was unlikely to clear properly.
Loch Einich:
I decided to run down to Meall Buidhe as the ground was fairly easy going. As soon as I was off the dome of the plateau, I was back out onto clear summits and even the odd bit of sunshine. I always enjoy views out over Strathspey - it seems so fertile, but also quite wild and forested at the same time.
Upper Strathspey and Geal Charn (the Pattack one):
Approaching Geal Charn from Meall Buidhe:
Sgoran Dubh Mor:
Across to the Northern Corries:
Creag Leth-choin:
I took a more relaxed approach to the traverse to Geal Charn - good thing as there was quite a lot of walking over loose stones. The views from here (and a prominent cairn just beyond) were even better. This almost made up for the lack of views into Glen Einich.
Strathspey from Geal Charn:
Down Strathspey and Loch an Eilean:
Back to the Carn Ban Mor plateau:
Descent was steep and heathery (and also a bit bouldery in places), but before long I was on a good path in the corrie. This led me down through the forest and eventually to the Auchlean road. There were a couple of options for staying in the trees, but these looked to involve a bit of up and down and it was now getting on a bit. I preferred the nice easy couple of miles back along the road instead.
Creag Ghiuthsachain:
Back up to Sgor Gaoith:
Hares the size of deer:
Creag Mhigeachaidh:
Not quite the Cairngorm experience I was after, but what turned out to be a very pleasant way of visiting some of the western tops. Not sure why I was concerned about darkness as I was eating my dinner outside in the garden at 11:30 pm with a last glint of sunset still showing behind Ben Wyvis.