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Participants - Pigeon , Gavin99
This was a first visit to this glen for both of us and what a place it is , the drive from Cannich to the road end through the ancient forest is a wonderful way to start the day. I’ll definitely be back to do some low level exploring in the glen but hills were on the agenda for today . There had been some loose talk in the pub about doing all five in the group but a struggle around the Strathfarrar hills in a gale the day before coupled with a sizzling forecast had us settling on a more civilised plan for the western three Munros .
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- Lovely Loch Affric
We parked up at the Loch Affric car park and set off on the lochside track through fine birch and pine forest , passing the very well kept buildings at Affric Lodge , instead of turning off towards Sgurr na Lapaich here we kept on the track heading west to pick up a stalkers path which we had been told provided an easy route up to Mam Sodhail .
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- Affric Lodge
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- Ascending Corrie Leavachie
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- A look back down the glen
A new track leads up to a small dam , from there a decent path climbs up into Corrie Leachavie at a nice gentle gradient . This would be easy going normally but in the blazing sun and with no hint of a breeze it was a long hot slog and a few well needed breaks were taken to cool down . A final steep section of zig-zags up the corrie headwall to pop out at on the ridge at 1080 m , a cooling breeze and the sight of a very near summit were both a relief .
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- Onwards to Mam Sodhail
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- Ruined bothy
Just below the summit we came across a ruined deer watchers bothy ,in the SMC journal Sir Hugh Munro gave tips to walkers on how to avoid detection by its inhabitants , thankfully nobody was home and we made it to the summit unchallenged .
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- A very impressive cairn
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- Carn Eige with Beinn Fhionnlaidh beyond
From the summit of Mam Sodhail we set off down to the bealach above Gleann nam Fiadh and picked up a sketchy bypass path which skirted around the shoulder of Carn Eige . Beinn Fhionnlaidh had looked pretty small from a distance but by the time we were at Bealach Beag we had a fair old plod in the heat to reach its summit , well worth it though for the great views north to Mullardoch .
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- A view down Gleann nam Fiadh
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- Loch Mullardoch
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- Bill and Ben at the summit of Beinn Fhionnnlaidh
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- Carn Eige above Coire Lochan
After a good rest at the cairn we headed off back down to tackle the final big climb of the day up Carn Eige , a slow plod again with a few breaks to cool down and admire the scenery .
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- Looking north from ascent
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- View to Kintail
When we reached the summit of Carn Eige the hazy cloud which had covered the more distant peaks had burned off leading to a frenzy of hill identification , most of it fairly accurate although I did make an outrageous claim that I could see Schiehallion , due east of us
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- A distant Nevis range
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- Carn Eige cairn
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- Looking N to misty Torridon
From the summit we headed east along the fine ridge leading to Sron Garbh , crossing some amazing looking pinnacles which provided some interesting and enjoyable scrambling , all of it avoidable with a bypass path .
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- Heading west along the ridge
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- Some fun on the pinnacles
From Sron Garbh a steep and loose descent brought us down to the bealach where we turned south to begin the long and fairly boggy tramp back to the start .
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- Our route down the glen
Reached the carpark fairly tired and footsore after a long hot slog but an excellent day on the hills in a magical glen , looking forward to returning soon
