Grey Corries in White

[Mrs Scoob]

This walk is part of our contribution to The Munro Table project, so I'm writing this up with a bit more detail than my recent blog posts For a visual summary of today's walk, here's Scoob's video

30Nov19 Grey Corries.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

We drove up the night before and stayed in our campervan at the starting point for this walk. It was 7.30 by the time we set off in the morning, so we didn't really need the head torches. Today we were following the Walk Highlands route for the three Munros, with a slight detour before the first one to reach the Top Stob Coire na Ceannain.

Just through the gate, about to head up the shoulder to Stob Coire Gaibhre

Looking towards Fort William in the morning glow

There was a noticeable difference in temperature when the sun reached us

Taking a spur line out to the Munro Top, with a short scramble down the snow-covered rocks

Glad we had the winter boots on to kick steps as we skirted under the summit to reach the Top. We decided not to take ice axes and crampons today, but did have micro spikes with us (never did put them on!)

Selfie from the summit of Stob Coire na Ceannain; just the 3 Munros to go now!

Stob Choire Claurigh summit with the rest of the ridge laid out before us. I do love the icy 'feathers' on the rocks :)

Stunning day for it! There wasn't a lot of snow up here today, and it wasn't very icy/slippery for the most part, but it sure was cold!

Several Tops later, now heading for the second Munro

Looking towards Stob Ban and beyond from the summit of Stob Coire an Laoigh

View of our route so far, from Stob Coire Easain

The scramble down to reach the final Munro was slower going as some of these rocks were a little more slippy

Sun getting lower as we reached the last summit

Sgurr Choinnich Mor summit view back to the rest of the ridge. We thought about skirting under the rocks on the way back to make a more gradual line out, but ended up just retracing our route back up the slippy scramble

Back on Stob Coire Easain, looking back to our last Munro as the sun sets

Following the shoulder down, we soon got the head torches out to finish our walk in the dark. The track through the forest was a little overgrown, but easy enough to follow once we found it! Once back on the road, we realised there were several new lines off of this since our last trip here - likely due to the forestry work. That made for a couple of wrong turns for us but quickly corrected.

Our stats for today; longer than we had expected, as usual! However this was a great day for this route.

Notes from our previous visits:

• First attempted on 4May13 with a few Walk Highlands friends from the same parking spot as today. We followed the dismantled tramway, which was very boggy and overgrown, then had to cross the river at the dam. Some of our group climbed over the dam while Scoob and I used a fallen tree to get across We turned back before reaching any summits this time, due to high winds and snow.

  Crossing the old tramway (the rest of us just walked underneath!)

  Crossing the river near the dam, keeping the feet dry

• 15Jun13 - mostly in the rain with poor visibility along with a few Walk Highlands friends, this was a similar route to today's trip but we started with Stob Ban.
• 2Jan14 - from this same starting point the two of us climbed the Innses Corbett pair, spotting a wild boar on the way back out.

  A wild boar looking down on us - it had left the track in front of us to get a better vantage point

• 31May17 - this was a big trip for Scoob and I for our round 2 visit; in summer weather from Steall Falls, taking in the Aonachs to Stob Ban then back through Glen Nevis