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Ring of Steall

Ring of Steall


Postby soapy27 » Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:59 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: 22/09/2012

Time taken: 10 hours

Distance: 16 km

Ascent: 1685m

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Left the car at 9am it was brass monkeys cold and definitely starting to feel like winters on its way.Parked the car at the bridge so didn't have to walk the 2 miles along the road at the end.It was a nice warm up for the relentless slog that was to come
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Toward An Gearanach
.
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Towards The Ben
After coming through the gorge and emerging from the trees it opens to a beautiful glen and with the sun just coming over the top of An Gearanach looks amazing
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Steall Falls
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Steall Falls 2
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Snow on The Ben
About an hour we made it to the rope bridge that some of us had been worrying about .Would be a nightmare to fall in so near the start .The water is mostly shallow but at the far side its a lot deeper and if you fell in there would most certainly write the day off.
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Rope bridge
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Derdre on the ropes
It was a little tricky especially in the middle when the rope starts twisting but with a little care we all made it across successfully
The next tricky section was trying to cross at the foot of Steall Falls with the rocks all very slippy and no clear way across spent around 10 minutes of head scratching we went for it and only a little water getting in the top of the boot I was happy we made it intact.
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Crossing Steall River
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Steall Falls 3

Hoping that was the end of the wet stuff and we could get making up some good ground we had a trudge through a massive bog with no simple ways to cross it ,so was a few times up to the shins a couple times but had to be done
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Crossing the bog
Eventually we were starting the accent of An Gearanach it was fairly steep but was finding it surprisingly easy although Deirdre was starting to fall behind which was fine as it gave us time to soak up as much of the surroundings and take plenty photos.
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Grey Corries and Binnein Beag
We reached the summit around 1230pm and had our lunch on one of the best viewpoints you'll get looking across to the eastern Mamores and down into the glen filled with deer with the stags roar to be the soundtrack of most of our day.
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The ridge ahead
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Nevis and CMD
There was some nice scambly bits along this ridge but nothing to difficult and in no time we were down to the bealach looking back it looked impossibly harder than it was
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Looking back to An Gearanach
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Me Stevie and Archie on Am Bodach
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Looking towards the third of the day
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Stob Coire a'Chairn
We reached the summit of Stob Coire a'Chairn at about 330pm and the legs were starting to feel a bit weary time for some more fruit and and energy boost before tackling the Devils ridge ahead.
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Loch Leven
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Schiehallion (zoomed)
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Bidean Nam Biam behind Aonach Eagach
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Devils Ridge 1
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Stob Ban
The Ridge was narrow and very exposed in places would definitely not want to be here on a windy day but with plenty care and taking our time we all made it along with Steve taking the high route and myself and Deidre taking the lower yet still exposed route.
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Devils Ridge 2
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Looking back along the ridge
We had a quick rest on Sgurr a'Mhaim but had to push on and down what felt like the longest decent I've encountered to date.Making it back to the car in 10 hours with wrecked feet and knees The Ring of Steall will go down as one of my most memorable days in the hills ever
Last edited by soapy27 on Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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soapy27
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby Fudgie » Sun Sep 23, 2012 5:21 pm

The Mammores are probably my favourite area and it's good to see you got a very clear day. Cracking place.
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby soapy27 » Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:23 pm

Cheers Fudgie aye it is an amazing place and deserves to be climbed in great weather to see their true beauty . 8)
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby Johnny Corbett » Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:24 pm

Great stuff, a cracking day for doing this ridge, looks almost perfect :D
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby quoman » Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:15 pm

Lovely report soapy the pic's are nice....it is a muck hole after the rope bridge right enough.
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby soapy27 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:51 am

Cheers folks ,Aye Johnny it sure was the perfect day for it nice wee breeze to cool us down,That bog was horrendous Quoman one of the worst I've seen :shock:
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby monty » Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:08 am

Glen nevis and the surrounding Mountains are amasing. Its a great round to do especially in good weather. Nice photos too. :D
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby soapy27 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 5:54 pm

Cheers Monty I really enjoyed my first day in The Mamores 8)
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby Graeme D » Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:09 pm

Enjoyed reading that soapy. I never tire of reading RoS reports. Especially like the "Nevis and CMD" shot. :thumbup:
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Re: Ring of Steall

Postby soapy27 » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:46 pm

Thanks Graeme ,yeah same here its a great place had to do a report and share its beauty 8)
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