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We are now onto day 3 of the WH meet and the forecast was far better than earlier in the week, so after many discussions on Friday evening a group of us (Graeme, Darren, David, Karen & Evie) opted to tackle Maol Chean-dearg.
The plan was to leave by 8am at the latest, over breakfast the plan of attack changed and we opted to save the planet by walking from the Youth Hostel, unfortunately Evie elected to drive the 40 or so miles and take the route from the south.
Just before 8am the five intrepid explorers and Darren's dog Charlie left the YH and headed along the road for just over a mile into the hamlet of Annat, just by the telephone box there is a sign post indicating the path to Coulags.
On leaving the road the path winds it's way gradually uphill, after the overnight rain there were quite a few puddles to negotiate.
Looking back across to the Youth Hostel
The group
Loch Torridon
Looking north
Waiting for Graeme
The path winds it's way through the glen with a couple of river crossings thrown in to make the walk a bit more interesting
Here a few "action" shots
We followed the path round the base of MCD and up to the bealach. As the path nears the bealach it steepens, on reaching the bealach the views really open up and the path from the south that Evie took can be seen like a motorway
Looking back
Plodding uphill
The impressive An Ruadh-Stac
Looking south
From the bealach it was time for the final push uphill, the going was getting tougher now. A kind of path wound it's way up, loose scree then boulders, the degree of ascent eased quite a bit. A slight descent before the eventual push up to the summit. The cairn could just bee seen through the clag.
Path can just about be seen
Still going up
Into the clag
Not quite an inversion
Summit selfie on the 10 sec timer
Almost got views
Clag lifted just as we started descending
Above shot zoomed
Descending
On the way down Darren and Graeme had decided to take in the amazing looking Corbett An Ruadh-Stac, I was swithering and it was the descent across the large slabs that concerned me so I opted to accompany Karen and David on the long walk back
Darren and Graeme romping downhill
Karen descending with David tagging along behind
Great views on the descent
Karen and David are there somewhere!
Meall nan Ceapairean
The slabs of An Ruadh-Stac zoomed
The next few shots are of Graeme and Darren marching across the slabs of An Ruadh-Stac all zoomed
The long walk back begins
A few rays of sunlight
Obstacle time again, in reverse
Interesting reeds or weeds?
The walk back was quite pleasant, we knew we would probably run out of daylight hours, however we just about timed it to perfection
The light was just fading as we reached the road and the walk along the road seemed to take a bit longer than the walk in
After 9 enjoyable hours we arrived back at the hostel and it was properly dark, we were met by Anne (Darren's boss)
She looked a bit concerned as we were 2 short and Darren was one of them, so we quickly put her mind at ease
Darren and Graeme arrived back about an hour after us and really must have made rapid time along the path. Hats off to both of you for taking in the Corbett in the limited hours of light
To sum up - another cracking day out in great company and I also managed to clock up 1000km for the year so far
Yet another fabulous successful Walk Highlands Meet, awesome location, area and hostel, huge thanks to Gill and John for all the hard work in organising such a memorable weekend
John failed on the weather front for Sunday, the forecast can be summed up in one word, awful
I decided that 5 Munro's over the weekend was far more than I expected, so I opted to head down the road and give the hills a miss
Next depends on the what the weather throws at us, my 'new' Munro options are very limited mainly due to the lack of daylight hours
