Conival South Ridge scramble
Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2018 11:23 pm
If I had to choose my favorite area of Scotalnd it would be the far North West and although we have been up Conival a number of times spotting a potential route up its South Ridge was a good excuse for a return visit. We found a description for the route in Highlands Scrambles North Which graded it as 2/3 scramble, so we decided to give it a try.
We set out from the Inchadamph carpark at 8:10 following the path into Gleann Dhubh and were delighted by the sheer number of different wild flower species. The one that really caught my attention was the Mountin Aspen growing on the grassy banks, it was not a plant I had come across before and I was surprised to find it was a shrub in the rose family.
The South Ridge of Conival starts in the bealach between Conival and Breabag Tarsainnand by approaching this via the path on the right hand side of the River Ligall we were able to visit the Bone Caves on route as well as explore an area we had not previously seen.
From the bone caves we could see the bealach in the distance. The terrain was undulating and although there was a faint path it was a case of guessing which line had the least ups and downs and more often than not getting it wrong.
On reaching we the bealach, we planned to traverse the slopes of Conival to join the ridge where it narrowed at about 600m, rather than follow the lower path and climb the ridge from its base.
There had been low cloud all morning and the skies were showing no sign of clearing, the crags above us were hidden in cloud and the traverse seemed relentless.
By 11:00 it felt like we were getting nowhere quickly, we were ready to throw in the towel, . Fortunately there was a bubbling burn that looked like an enticing spot for an early lunch.
Feeling revived and able to identfy our objective on the skyline we set out with renewed vigour. We traversed the steep slopes on an ever narrowing deer path crossing the gullies filled with loose boulders with a spring in our step (almost).
The situation was magnificent despite the testing terrain.
And eventually we reached the South Ridge.
As we made our to the first of three towers we had a good view of ridge between Conival and Ben More Assynt
The trickiest scrambling was up slabs on the first tower.
Although keeping to the side was a bit easier
The scrambling up these was much blockier and awkward rather than technical.
From here we followed the narrow grassy ridge straight up to the summit, there were a few short easy rocky sections, but even without these the ridge was delightful, and the exposed step mentioned in the guidebook was a short narrow descent and my fears of an exposed jump thankfully unfounded.
As we enjoyed our summit brew we chatted to a couple who had been watching our progress as they walked back from Ben More and seemed very tempted to try it, although not in descent.
We followed the standard route in descent and by the time we reached the upper Coirre Blue Skies had resumed normal service.
As we were making our slowly back along Gleann Dhubh we were passed by numerous runners on the Cape Wrath Ultra Marathon, at the end of their longest day, nearing 40 miles. Amazing
Looking back we could just see our route on the skyline
The slog in was worth every step and for a scrambling route up Conival I would highly recomend it.
We set out from the Inchadamph carpark at 8:10 following the path into Gleann Dhubh and were delighted by the sheer number of different wild flower species. The one that really caught my attention was the Mountin Aspen growing on the grassy banks, it was not a plant I had come across before and I was surprised to find it was a shrub in the rose family.
The South Ridge of Conival starts in the bealach between Conival and Breabag Tarsainnand by approaching this via the path on the right hand side of the River Ligall we were able to visit the Bone Caves on route as well as explore an area we had not previously seen.
From the bone caves we could see the bealach in the distance. The terrain was undulating and although there was a faint path it was a case of guessing which line had the least ups and downs and more often than not getting it wrong.
On reaching we the bealach, we planned to traverse the slopes of Conival to join the ridge where it narrowed at about 600m, rather than follow the lower path and climb the ridge from its base.
There had been low cloud all morning and the skies were showing no sign of clearing, the crags above us were hidden in cloud and the traverse seemed relentless.
By 11:00 it felt like we were getting nowhere quickly, we were ready to throw in the towel, . Fortunately there was a bubbling burn that looked like an enticing spot for an early lunch.
Feeling revived and able to identfy our objective on the skyline we set out with renewed vigour. We traversed the steep slopes on an ever narrowing deer path crossing the gullies filled with loose boulders with a spring in our step (almost).
The situation was magnificent despite the testing terrain.
And eventually we reached the South Ridge.
As we made our to the first of three towers we had a good view of ridge between Conival and Ben More Assynt
The trickiest scrambling was up slabs on the first tower.
Although keeping to the side was a bit easier
The scrambling up these was much blockier and awkward rather than technical.
From here we followed the narrow grassy ridge straight up to the summit, there were a few short easy rocky sections, but even without these the ridge was delightful, and the exposed step mentioned in the guidebook was a short narrow descent and my fears of an exposed jump thankfully unfounded.
As we enjoyed our summit brew we chatted to a couple who had been watching our progress as they walked back from Ben More and seemed very tempted to try it, although not in descent.
We followed the standard route in descent and by the time we reached the upper Coirre Blue Skies had resumed normal service.
As we were making our slowly back along Gleann Dhubh we were passed by numerous runners on the Cape Wrath Ultra Marathon, at the end of their longest day, nearing 40 miles. Amazing
Looking back we could just see our route on the skyline
The slog in was worth every step and for a scrambling route up Conival I would highly recomend it.