A "Fine" introduction to the Glen Shiel mountains

[martin.h]

My first walk report.
This was the first serious walking we had undertaken in the Scottish Highlands for almost a year and although we had been keeping relatively hill fit in the Dales and the Lakes over the months, I wasn't sure how we would get on, the planned warm up walk on Skye (Marsco) was put off due to the weather on Sunday so, my wife Denise and I were hoping for some decent weather as compensation on our first ever outing in Glen Shiel. So, with the forecast set for sunshine and heavy showers we were off.
Our youngest son offered to taxi us to the start and pick us up at the end, no problem with transport there then, handy things, these sons.
The decision to "go for it" and start from the car park below Bealach an Lapain was made, having read previous reports on this ascent I thought that if we could manage this first 1km it shouldn't be too bad, so off we went, soon realising that "yup" it's steep, crikey, it's steep, but we got there with not too much huffing and puffing and the views were spectacular, Sisters to the left, Brothers to the right all with wispy clouds just obscuring the summits, the sun was trying but not quite hard enough. We were looking forward to this, now that the initial hard work was done.

The car park from the Bealach

After a short break we set off for Munro no: 1 Saileag, clouds just dispersing, within 1/2 hour we were on the summit and now the Sisters were showing themselves, the way forward was still in cloud but the cloud was thinning and the route could mostly be seen, I took a couple of piccy's and then set off for Munro no: 2.

On Saileag summit

Onwards

Clouds clearing

Off we go

This part of the walk was really good, the pace was nice and steady, the views were becoming better and better as time went on, this was the mountains at their best, a bit seep in places compared with the hills in the Lakes but really enjoyable. We could see the next Munro now and the surrounding panorama was unveiling it's self.
We decided to have our lunch on Sgurr a Bhealaich Dheirg after visiting the cairn along the little ridge, strange place for a wall, by the way, does anybody know why it's there, is it a boundary of sorts? We sat down back on the ridge proper had our sarni's and just looked all around, I'm very passionate about the views from any mountain, especially Scottish ones.

Our second summit

Fantastic view

Now fed and watered we were on our way to Aonach Meadhoin, the drop down to the col between no:2 and No:3 was a wee bit further than it looks on the map and a bit loose in parts, but when we considered this was our first three munro day we'd ever undertaken it looked worse than it was and were soon on our last main summit. The South Glen Shiel Ridge was now completely clear, this was our objective for Wednesday, so we could see what was involved and from here it looks quite a walk.

Pano of the S.G.S.Ridge

Our last summit

Tuesday's objective

Start point for Wednesday

Looking towards Sgurr an Fhuarail from Aonach Meadhoin it appears ,at first, not to be part of the same ridge so I can imagine this could be confusing in mist because it feels like you'd be heading off in the wrong direction, but for us it looked o.k even though I thought " blimey there's still another uphill bit yet". I looked over to Ciste Dubh our planned walk for Tuesday together with Am Bathach, actually seeing these mountains after reading reports makes it so much easier to comprehend, to include Ciste Dubh with the Brothers like some of the WH members shows how fit they are. When we got to Sgurr an Fhuarail the work was done, I could feel the lure of the Cluanie getting ever stronger.

The view behind

We dropped down to point 843m on the map, stood by the little cairn and before heading down, looked at where we'd been, although the ridge was now being obscured we felt a great sense of achievement because both of us had just added three more munro's to our small collection, could this be the start of an obsession? I hope so.

"Oasis"

The ridge disappearing

Loch Cluanie

We finally arrived down at the Cluanie, it's a punishing walk down off the hills here, but the rewards are worth it, two hand pulled beers to choose from so I tried them both, taking full advantage of not driving, Denise a J2O, Taxi arriving soon, Orange juice for the driver, well, you've got to contribute something to the service, what an excellent day out, the weather gave us a fine introduction, nothing like the forecast.[attachment=0]

[The Rodmiester]

Great stuff martin.h, and well done both of you Looks like it was better weather than forecast, slightly clearer than I got last month when I did them. Lovely hills! enjoy the rest of your holiday walks. Makes up for the horrible weather we had on Skye at the weekend, funny you should think about Marsco, that's what I was to have been doing last Saturday I stuck with the tent, just to make sure it wasn't blown away