Beinn a chearchaill first snowy walk

[Orosay]

It’s November and days are getting short. There’s also quite a lot of snow on the peaks this week, so we are starting to look for lower level walks that can be done comfortably in a day. Forecast for the weekend was good though, and especially Torridon - negligible chance of rain, no wind and excellent visiblity (but no sun 😕
So we thought we would head over to take a look at the snow level and either do Beinn a chearchaill or if it looked snowy, Coire Mhic Fearchair.
It’s a marvellous road up to Achnasheen and on to Kinlochewe (thanks EU!) and we were there in less than an hour. Snow line looked about 700m heading west and we thought might be higher still on the balmy west coast! Snow Looked fairly well up on this wee hill

Slioch

so we decided to go for the Graham. Found the parking place easily and up the stalkers path with views of Beiin Eighe ahead

Beinn eighe

the path was good and superb views, the sun even emerged for 10 minutes and we couldn’t stop looking over our shoulder to Slioch

The spear in sunshine

As can happen we were so caught up in the views

Beinn eighe closer

we missed the fairly obvious cairn

Camouflaged cairn, with hat

It was even wearing a hat for goodness sake! We knew we should have gone up the north side of Coire briste so after crossing the Corrie burn on stepping stones were pretty suspicious we had gone too far and turned back! Met another couple who had missed the turn off as well, they thought there might be another path on the south side and carried on, we didn’t see them again and guess they must have turned back! Anyway - up the icy path toward the top of the Corrie we marched, getting very warm! Guess what we saw from the top?

It’s still there

Of slightly more concern to these winter hill novices was looking ahead and realising the snow was a bit lower than expected! Didn’t look deep thankfully

Rocky slopes

This is a “jumbly” hill, lots of rocky outcrops to block line of sight

Rocky slopes

but we were always fairly clear which way was up. Climb got steep in places, with snow at top of boot level (or just over unfortunately). A few places where there were invisible holes between rocks and care was needed. Always good views though

Meall a Ghubhais

. Soon we were at the last climb to the summit

Near the top?

(we thought) only to find we had quite a bit to go! To be honest this was a bit depressing, but we had three and a half hours of daylight left, so plenty time. The climb was tiring, a lot of slipping around on the steeper snowy parts. We stayed to the right, but don’t think there is an obviously easier route? Finally though made it on to the strange flat summit

Flat summit

and found the cairn

Summit cairn with Beinn Airigh Charr

Still comfy for time, so spent ten minutes enjoying the views

Ailigin

Hazy sun above beiin eighe

. Maybe leave this one for the summer

Looks easy enough

As always, it’s the descent that kills you! I thought it looked more gentle off to the right hand side, but no, just the same! Steep and snowy, with a few patches of big stones where it would be easy to twist an ankle. However, made our way past the loch and to the top of the path and back down, the path had thawed a lot and it was very muddy! Once again I felt a bit nauseous at times, not been out much for a month or so, so could be that just not used to it! Never mind, we met the stalkers path at the cairn of the hat and back down in half an hour, plenty of daylight left. So what of Beinn a Chearchaill? We had heard it was a great hill, but it the very stony going and the snow made it quite tough. Great views though and interesting to try it in the summer