Kintail Winter Wonderland - Day 1
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 12:20 pm
Drove up from Glasgow in the rain on friday evening looking forward to a weekend of walking with the weather forecast looking ok for Saturday. Struggled to find our Ratagan cottage in the dark, which bodes well for route finding on the hill!
Nice dinner & a few beers in the kintail lodge. Most pleasent. Then whisky & banter in the cottage.
Up bright, but not too sparkey & off to the start point. A large layby not actualy marked on the map, but mentioned on this sites notes.
Followed the WH desription although i would challenge the 'stalkers path is a delight' quote. Wet & boggy. Due to the snow line as we got further up is was not clear were the delightful path had gone so picked our way up & around to get behind the crags marked on the map.
This brought us out on the west ridge looking into the coire nan clach. At this point the weather had not been as promised (nothing new there), but we kept getting glimpses of bright blue sky leading us to beleive we were in for a good day. As we went along the ridge leading to the summit of Carn Ghluasaid the clag came in & visability was very poor, but i had taken a bearing so all was good. There are at least three cairns on the summit ridge & we eventualy came upon the one with the large drop behind it. Happy days, a quick photo & fresh bearing to Creag a Chaorain and off we go.
After about 15mins had a group chat & decided to call it a day as you could not see the person standing next to you never mind the stunning Kintail views. Check of the map, based on our rough location & the best route was direct into Coire nan clach & then walk out to the road. At about 650 meters we were out of the clag & could see the valley floor. Found a nice flat rock to lay out lunch picnic style. Then headed down, back to the cottage to watch the rugby followed by a lochside amble as it was a lovely afternoon in Ratagan. Go figure! Good day & very pleased with my navigation.
Nice dinner & a few beers in the kintail lodge. Most pleasent. Then whisky & banter in the cottage.
Up bright, but not too sparkey & off to the start point. A large layby not actualy marked on the map, but mentioned on this sites notes.
Followed the WH desription although i would challenge the 'stalkers path is a delight' quote. Wet & boggy. Due to the snow line as we got further up is was not clear were the delightful path had gone so picked our way up & around to get behind the crags marked on the map.
This brought us out on the west ridge looking into the coire nan clach. At this point the weather had not been as promised (nothing new there), but we kept getting glimpses of bright blue sky leading us to beleive we were in for a good day. As we went along the ridge leading to the summit of Carn Ghluasaid the clag came in & visability was very poor, but i had taken a bearing so all was good. There are at least three cairns on the summit ridge & we eventualy came upon the one with the large drop behind it. Happy days, a quick photo & fresh bearing to Creag a Chaorain and off we go.
After about 15mins had a group chat & decided to call it a day as you could not see the person standing next to you never mind the stunning Kintail views. Check of the map, based on our rough location & the best route was direct into Coire nan clach & then walk out to the road. At about 650 meters we were out of the clag & could see the valley floor. Found a nice flat rock to lay out lunch picnic style. Then headed down, back to the cottage to watch the rugby followed by a lochside amble as it was a lovely afternoon in Ratagan. Go figure! Good day & very pleased with my navigation.