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The Ring of Fire

The Ring of Fire


Postby Fudgie » Sat Jun 02, 2012 11:47 pm

Route description: The Ring of Steall, Mamores

Munros included on this walk: Am Bodach, An Gearanach, Sgùrr a' Mhàim, Stob Coire a' Chàirn

Date walked: 02/06/2012

Time taken: 8.5 hours

Distance: 15.3 km

Ascent: 1749m

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After a delayed drive up due to the number of tourists on the road we were out of the car and walking by 10:30am. I had a read a few of the reports and decided to follow in Johnny Corbett's footsteps and do the route in the opposite direction suggested on here. After just over 2 hours we reached the summit of Sgurr a' Mhaim and we were baking in the lunchtime sun. We admired the close up view of Ben Nevis from the slightly breezy summit and surveyed the route ahead.

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It was a popular walk today and I lost count of the number of people we had passed. We quickly found ourselves looking towards Am Bodach and it was a reasonable walk to the summit although the heat was hampering us slightly.

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The views were fantastic in every direction and the path we had taken to get to this point was very clear.

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After a fairly steep descent and then an ascent which seemed to go on forever, we arrived on the summit of Stob Coire a'Chairn with the sun still beating down upon us. We admired the view of Binnien Mor from here and got a bit of a surprise when we saw how steep the path was up to the summit of An Gearanach. I was feeling a bit knackered at this point but some fluid and a bite to eat kept me going.

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I seemed to get a second wind and the scramble to the summit of An Gearanach was thoroughly enjoyable although in poorer weather it would have been a bit more interesting. It was a relief to get here and we looked back at the three mountains we had conquered before this one.

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We then began the seemingly never ending descent down to the waterfall and when we found a fast flowing stream it was a great feeling and I stuck my head under the running water :D

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The walk out was surreal as we passed a large number of people heading into to look at the waterfall. What these fresh faced folk made of three rather pink looking guys who were feeling a bit burst was beyond me but the walk back to the car passed quite quickly.

We made a group decision to visit the McDonalds in Fort William for some much needed food and a chance to reflect on the days walk. The three of us agreed that despite it being very hard work at times it was a very enjoyable day and with traffic being light I made great time back through Glencoe. My skin is burning as I type this but I wouldn't have it any other way :lol:
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby RicKamila » Sun Jun 03, 2012 12:06 am

Looks like a great day out. Was just plain dull here in Aberdeen today. Love the photos too Fudgie!!
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby Fudgie » Sun Jun 03, 2012 12:25 am

Cheers Ric. I have others to put up but I'll do it tomorrow when I'm a bit less tired and burnt :wink:
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby monty » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:06 am

Nice one Fudgie. One of my favourite areas. : :D
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby Fudgie » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:45 am

monty wrote:Nice one Fudgie. One of my favourite areas. : :D


Thanks Monty. Hopefully I'll be back there soon.
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby gman » Sun Jun 03, 2012 12:44 pm

Glad I went up on Friday, queue of caravans & boats on trailers started at Dumbarton on Saturday :shock: Excellent report, you reckon going in that direction is better?
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby Fudgie » Sun Jun 03, 2012 1:28 pm

gman wrote:Glad I went up on Friday, queue of caravans & boats on trailers started at Dumbarton on Saturday :shock: Excellent report, you reckon going in that direction is better?


The three of us agreed that it's a hard route no matter what way you do it but we thought that doing it in that direction was the correct choice. We had parked the car at the foot of Sgurr a' Mhaim and it was preferable to walk back down the road to it instead of uphill had we parked at the normal car park. A couple of our descents were quite steep and going up those parts would have been heavy work.

It was also pretty refreshing for our tired limbs and roasted faces to reach the waterfall and river at the end. I found a fast flowing stream and stuck my face under it and filled up my water bottle. If I did it again in a group with two cars then I would try it the other way.
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby jimandandrea » Sun Jun 03, 2012 2:12 pm

Stunning pics on a superb day. :clap: :clap:
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby Fudgie » Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:00 pm

jimandandrea wrote:Stunning pics on a superb day. :clap: :clap:


Cheers for that and it was worth all the effort. Here's a few more:

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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby xpfloyd » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:29 pm

Nice report fudgie and cracking pics, will need to visit these ones soon
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby pigeon » Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:17 pm

Great pics Fudgie ,doing these soon(hopefully) :thumbup:
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby clivew » Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:42 pm

Hi Fudgie; Great report and pics, Saturday was perfect walking weather wasn't it, even if it was a bit on the warm side at times, I must head over that way some time this summer it looks stunning :clap: :clap:
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby Fudgie » Mon Jun 04, 2012 10:06 pm

Thanks Floyd and Pigeon, I can't recommend these four enough.

clivew wrote:Hi Fudgie; Great report and pics, Saturday was perfect walking weather wasn't it, even if it was a bit on the warm side at times, I must head over that way some time this summer it looks stunning :clap: :clap:


It was indeed warm at times clive and I still have the sunburn to prove it :lol: It was my first foray into The Mammores and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I fancy doing the eastern four at some point but that will be a while away.
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby Mountainlove » Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:59 am

Some lovely photos and it is great to see the Mamores free from snow :-)
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Re: The Ring of Fire

Postby Fudgie » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:52 pm

Mountainlove wrote:Some lovely photos and it is great to see the Mamores free from snow :-)


Thanks a lot. I'll need to go back in the snow :wink:
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