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My Final Fannaich

My Final Fannaich


Postby basscadet » Mon Sep 30, 2013 11:30 pm

Route description: Sgùrr nan Clach Geala, near Braemore

Munros included on this walk: Meall a' Chrasgaidh, Sgùrr nan Clach Geala, Sgùrr nan Each

Date walked: 28/09/2013

Time taken: 7 hours

Distance: 20 km

Ascent: 1085m

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So this weekend, I was a golf widow, :( but my dad was also home alone, so decided to go up to Rockfield to keep him company. :) We had talked about a walk in the Fannaichs a lot of late, so seemed like an ideal opportunity. The weather report was for pretty much good weather everywhere apart from the Fannaichs. :problem: There have been very few days in my hill walking past where I considered the weather to be life threatening; all of those days have been in the Fannaichs though. Here’s hoping for a fine, uneventful walk I was thinking on the early morning drive. :roll:


Fannaichs.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts



We were away from the car a bit after 9, full waterproofs on, the hills shrouded in cloud. :? We uneventfully walked the track, the new path through the forest to the bridge and up towards Glen Breabaig. It stopped raining, and was rather warm, so all the kit was off again as we started to get into our rhythm. It was there that we discussed what route we would be doing.. Rather late in the day! But not the first time we had discovered on the hill that we each had completely different ideas as to the route :lol: We decided to go right up the glen and to Sgurr nan Each first, as that was the only Fannaich I had left to do, and the weather was supposed to improve later, so the cloud may clear for the walk back along the ridge. :thumbup:

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We missed the crossing for the path, :roll: but a good path goes up the west side of the river and we made good progress..

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There were some right bonny wee spots along there, but every time I paused, Dad seemed to get further ahead, so had to make a boggy dash at one point to keep him in my sights. :D I talked to my dad about how I had been intending to do a walk in the Fannaichs from Braemore junction side for ages, and he said that in the summer of 1982, we walked into Nest of Fannaich bothy (now ruinous) as a family, so I had definitely been this way before, :crazy: but I had probably been too young to remember it. Would be a long way for a 3 year old I thought. :shock:
Further up the glen, we saw a mass of peat haggage ahead, and with our path getting rather faint, we followed the grassy banks of side stream, up to the path marked on the map It skirted above the peat hags and up a couple of steeper sections and on to the bealach. We sat in the nice shelter there and got the flask out. Other walkers appear to have been trying to make the shelter more windproof by filling the cracks in the walls with rubbish. :?
Soon we were heading upward, toward the clag. It was steep and boggy in a couple of places, but not nearly as bad as I remembered it from a previous trip.

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Up in the clag, I never saw much of Dad, but could hear him making his ptarmigan call noise, and could see a couple of them come out from behind rocks to satisfy their curiosities. :) They are already white underneath, and the good berry crop has made for some pretty fat ptarmigan.
We made it up to the coll, the humidity and lack of breeze almost stifling, :? it was like breathing in warm water. It was any easy climb up the ridge path from there to the top of Sgurr Nan Each.

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There were quite a few false summits in the clag, but it still wasn’t far. We sat in the mist and ate and drank more tea.

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We retraced our steps, and started up the wide grassy ridge leading up Clach Geala. It seemed like a long slog in the humid conditions, the sun burning through the cloud for a bit to give some blue skies above. Still couldn’t see much though.

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We stopped at the summit again, which turned out to be very busy. Group after group came up from the other way.

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We had hopes it would clear, it felt like it would so we hung around awhile, but then it went back to thick clag, so we decided to carry on. It was still only 1PM, and it felt like we were getting round the route a bit too fast, so we slowed down. :)
The descent from Clach Geala was a delight. Slabby, rocky tors appeared from the mists and the path wound through and round them in a most pleasing manner.

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The ridge curves the wrong way slightly, so we were eventually forced onto the non descript, grassy descent. We came out below the cloud briefly for a boggy coll, then up at an easy angle, to the rather more round lump of a hill that is Meall a Chrasgaidh.

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We finished our tea beside the shelter there, and then continued along the ridge downward. This is definitely the best bit of the hill, with slabs and low lying alpine willows making the way interesting. The cloud was finally parting and we were getting some nice views now. :D

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The final descents were steep, so some zigzagging down to a small track, which in turn passed close to the path before long. An easy river crossing and we were just a couple of km to the car in increasingly sunny conditions.

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I was surprised at how easy this walk had been and we were back so early, we had plenty of time for a pint at the dam on the way home. :thumbup: Shame there weren’t many views, but to be honest I was just glad the weather was hospitable enough to actually finish a Fannaich’s walk :lol:
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basscadet
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Re: My Final Fannaich

Postby Graeme D » Tue Oct 01, 2013 9:55 pm

Dougie slacking off????? Seriously though, well done on finishing the Fannaichs. I've still to start!
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Graeme D
 
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Re: My Final Fannaich

Postby dogplodder » Wed Oct 02, 2013 6:57 am

Some nice photos there. :D
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dogplodder
 
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Re: My Final Fannaich

Postby basscadet » Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:31 pm

Graeme D wrote:Dougie slacking off????? Seriously though, well done on finishing the Fannaichs. I've still to start!


Och Dougie's still got a lot of them to do as well, so wont be the last time I'll be walking there.. Maybe we could organise a meet or something for it :D

dogplodder wrote:Some nice photos there. :D


Oooh, well I got a new app that automatically makes any photo nice :wink: Glad you enjoyed :)
User avatar
basscadet
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2778
Munros:84   Corbetts:52
Fionas:18   Donalds:8
Sub 2000:34   Hewitts:13
Wainwrights:17   Islands:21
Joined: Dec 1, 2011
Location: Edinburgh

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