Beinn Enaiglair (corbett) and Meall Doire Faid (graham)

[gld73]

A cold, clear day, didn't get an early start due to laziness and suddenly deciding I should dig out ice axe and spikes for the first time this season in case the hills were wintery. Needn't have bothered - though all the munros were snow topped (some more than others), these 2 were just shallow powdery snow near the summits, nothing needing equipment, so I left it all in the car.

No other cars parked at Braemore Junction, so given my late start, I was pretty sure I'd be the only one on these hills today. Wasn't sure when I set off whether I'd just do Beinn Enaiglair, or do Meall Doire Faid too, so decided to see how I was doing for time later on as I wanted to be back at the car when it was still light.

Beinn Enaiglair on the left, Meall Doire Faid on right, from near Home Loch

Followed the path/track round and up to Home Loch and just beyond, then at a small cairn branched right to go up to the bealach between the 2 hills ( path would have been very wet with all the recent rain, but the temperatures today meant it was more ice than water and not easy to walk on as I got further up towards the bealach). Lost any path when I headed left at the large boulder/erratic, so just headed up Beinn Enaiglair my own way. Got into the snow, but nice and shallow and powdery, so no difficulties, just the SE wind was very cold. Eventually got up onto the summit area almost directly in line with the summit cairn. Nice views all around - Ben Wyvis snow covered and cloud topped, the other munro groups (Fannichs and Beinn Dearg group) just snow topped, and An Teallach and the coastal Assynt hills looking pretty much snow free.

Beinn Enaiglair summit with Beinn Dearg behind

view west to An Teallach

north west to Ben More Coigach and the Assynt coastal hills

BE summit plateau in foreground, summit ridge of MDF in middle, Fannichs in background

Headed directly south-ish back down towards the bealach, trying to decide whether to take the same route back, or go over the graham, Meall Doire Faid; its north face wasn't looking very tempting at all, completely in the shade and looking dark and ice-covered. Thought I'd leave it for a dedicated winter ascent, but when I got back down to the bealach and was in the shade myself, it didn't look so bad. I headed up a steep section of frozen stream, then a wider section of snow covered vegetation climbing to the left (east), then near the top of that, turned right to clamber over snow covered boulders to reach a snowy/grassy ramp up to the summit area. The ascent wasn't as bad as it had looked in the dark and cold.

Sunny south flank of Beinn Enaiglair from Meall Doire Faid summit

West to An Teallach

Lovely summit views again, then a direct descent towards Braemore Junction. Tough descent on the knees and I seemed to go down some very steep sections, but it was all in the sun on the south side. Boggy areas were frozen higher up, then got boggy but easy to avoid lower down.

Heading directly down to Braemore Junction (centre of photo), looking S to the Fannichs

Final flat-ish stretch to the car had a fence in the way - the left turn I took added an extra half km on to things compared to if I'd gone right and ended up at the end where I'd started the walk. No problem though, I was back well within daylight. Good walk for winter conditions this, especially as you can park right next to the A835, a main road which will be kept clear of snow and ice; might come back to do 1 or both of them in full snow conditions.


Left car 1114, Beinn Eneglair summit 1313, Meall Doire Faid summit 1415, Back at the car 1521 = 4.1hrs
(distance and height are approximate)

[Coop]

Think it was March or April when I was on this pair.
Cracking view of An Teallach from up there

[Graeme D]

Lovely photos and a sense of the hills really gearing up for winter!

[dogplodder]

Went up MDF in June when chased off Creag Rainnich by rain and low cloud and got decent views showing how localised weather can be. A good wee hill.