You Shall Not Pass (& the small matter of a 100th)

[Backpacker]

Said Gandalf to Balrog, which is pretty much the gateway to Glen Strathfarrar. Myself to Davie Main both turned up far too early, completely misjudging the time from our respective homes. (although in my defence I have various amounts of roadworks to contend with)

Bang on 9 we were allowed in and headed down the pothole ridden track, we had thought about doing the route clockwise and leaving the bog to the end but driving down we over shot the end point if we were doing the route anticlockwise so we turned round dropped one car off and back back to the start point to do the route anticlockwise.

Strathfarrar 4 (1 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (2 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Initially the track is pretty good but after about a half mile it turns into a bit of a quagmire. Heading up Carn nan Gobhar & Sgurr a' Choire Ghlais come into view with the latter looking a bit steep

Strathfarrar 4 (3 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Before long the path swings around to the right and you start the ascent up to the 1st target of the day Sgurr na Ruaidhe, the bog still continuing, I don't know if it's being off the hills for 3 weeks, long shifts at work sat at a desk, lack of sleep or a combination but I was really struggling getting moving up, so shouted at Dave that I'd see him on the summit.

With me taking my time it allowed to have a good look around

Strathfarrar 4 (6 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Thankfully as the gradient eases the path does start to dry out and progress was a bit quicker and met up with Dave approaching the summit.

Strathfarrar 4 (10 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

We took a few photos and were on our way seeing as we were on a time limit.

The walk over to No2 Carn nan Gobhar looks easy enough but lower down it's a wee bit steeper than it looks but we made not bad progress and were on the summit in about 45mins

Strathfarrar 4 (11 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (13 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (15 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (16 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Not much hanging about again and pushed on towards No3 it looked steep and proved to be so, it was pretty much a head down and put one foot in front of the other till we hit the boulder field, skirted around to the north and found a far easier way up regrouping on the summit.

Strathfarrar 4 (18 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (19 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (20 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (21 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

After a bit of a feed and a longer rest as we were ahead of our own imposed schedule we pushed on towards the final summit and Davies 100th

Strathfarrar 4 (22 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

looking back we had timed it perfectly as Sgurr a Choire Ghlais was under a spot of clag

Strathfarrar 4 (24 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Not long after leaving we were on the 4th and final summit (& Davie's 100th)

Strathfarrar 4 (25 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (27 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

Strathfarrar 4 (29 of 29) by GaryE1981, on Flickr

After enjoying the views and a leisurely break as we'd been quicker than we had to, all that was left the walk out. The stalkers path was great and the water features fantastic but to many rain drops on my lenses meant the photo's didn't really come out.

Sgurr na Muice looks like it would be a great walk in its own right whether a scramble or a stroll.

Once at the bottom it was just a case of pile into Dave's car and head back to mine

[mrssanta]

oh that did look great, and well done to Davie on his ton.

[Stuart Blakeley]

Great photo's and well done on the 100! Can i ask what the distance was back to the car from the walk out (if i only had one car)?