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In the early morning Stenhousemuir darkness, myself and Quoman headed off up to Loch Quoich to bag my first hill in the northwest and my first "Sgurr"
Sgurr a'Mhaoraich...
After 3 and half hours of driving, it was time to do some walking. As we arrived an older chap was already booting up and he walked the first part of the walk along side us, before he gradually began to pull away from my slower pace. Apart from him, we never saw another sole all day and the paths only bore our boot prints, it felt like we were in another world completely.
The first part of the walk is on a decent stalkers path, up over grassy moorland. However it had turned wet and muddy given the recent rains. Over to the right Gleuraich was prominant and behind it the South Shiel Ridge begins to draw the eye, back behind the unusual shape of Loch Quoich becomes more expansive the higher you climb.
At this point it looked as if we were going to be playing a game of chance as to whether we would get views from the top or not. Sometimes we'd look up and the summit would be clear, another time and it would be caked in clag, but the sun was trying to break through the wispy cloud cover and occasionally it would light Loch Quoich up like a lake of molten gold.
The path becomes less distinct when it reaches a stoney section just before the first top of Sgurr Coire nan Eirichean. While crossing this part we saw a flock of Ptarmigan doing their best impressions of the surrounding rocks.
Soon after this Sgurr Coire nan Eirichean had been summitted and the path follows round to the west and downhill onto a fine wee ridge, crossing a couple of half tumbles down drystane dykes in the process.
From here on the muddy, grassy complextion of the hill is replaces with a more rockier outlook There is a faint path over the top of the bumps on the ridge, but the main route bypasses them just a little to the south.
After the ridge section is completed a short, sharp steep section is encountered as the path climbs past the northern side of the false summit/lower top and the view from here back over the way had come was fantastic. Almost the entire length of the South Shiel Ridge, Gleouraich; Spidean Mialach just peaking into sight; and Coire 'Chaorinn dropping away far down below.
The steep section isn't long and it takes you along the foot of some crags defending the lower summit/false top. To your right is a fairly big drop down into the corrie, but it did not feel exposed at all. In the photo below the path follows the grassy ledge, just the right of the crags in the upper left part of the picture.... above the red bag.
Once the steep is done, the path curves round to the north and in a couple of minutes the top is reached!
Quite rightly this fine mountain has a big cairn at the top.
While we lunched at the top a flurry of snow came on and we dawned our water proofs just in case, but we had them off again 10 minutes later.
We had all the views we wanted to the north, south and east, but out west there was only a wall of wispy cloud that gave us tantilising we glimpses of Loch Hourn and the sea, but never enough to see Skye or the Cullins.
Despite hanging about for about 20 minutes at the top, the views to the west were never opening up, so we set off back the way we had ascended the hill. On the steep section the rocky steps cut into the path proved to be very slippy and I ended up on my bum! It was a comedy cuts, will he, won't he moment. Thankfully the older chap had long since carried on his walk and Quoman was walking on front... so he never saw! lol
Looking back at the site of my slip and the steep bit.
The cloud to the west did lift slightly as we descended and we glimpsed the Forcan Ridge away in the distance, with Sgurr Bhac Chaolais basking in sunshine in front of it.
All the time we were walking the glen was ringing with the sound of stags roaring, but we could never see one until we were almost back at the car, way down by the narrow northern arm of Loch Quoich. We also spotted the Ptarmigan again on the way back down.. these guys need to go back to camoflage school!
The WH reports says Loch Quoich is surrounded by an ugly tidal mark unless it's completely full, have to say I disagree. It just looks like a sandy beach and gives the loch a bit of character you don't see everywhere else.
All in all a great day out on the hills on a super hill. Sgurr a'Mhaoraich may not be the most taxing hill to climb, but it does have a bit of everything thrown in and it's also in area I know I would never have ventured but for this bagging adventure we're all addicted to. Hats off to SaM, you have a friend in me!
