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Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain


Postby Huff_n_Puff » Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:28 pm

Route description: Chno Dearg and Stob Coire Sgriodain

Munros included on this walk: Chno Dearg, Stob Coire Sgriodain

Date walked: 26/03/2014

Time taken: 7.5 hours

Distance: 13 km

Ascent: 928m

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We hadn't gone far up the slopes of Stob Coire Sgriodain when the chorus of the old Simon and Garfunkel song 'Slip Sliding Away' started a continuous loop in my brain – occasionally finding a route out through my mouth as I spontaneously burst into song while squelching through the bog :roll: . I quite like the human race so I don't usually burst into song, but for some reason this song that I'd forgotten about stayed with me all day, and singing it added to the joys :crazy: :crazy: !!. The wise among you are probably thinking something like … “Silly ****, what else did you expect? You go up a well known bog route 3 days after a snow dump followed by 2 days of thaw. Of course it would be WET” :crazy:

True to our usual pattern we didn't quite leave home as early as planned, so it was about 10:15 when we pulled into a (quite busy) car park. A couple of guys next to us were kitting up for ski touring, and set off about the same time as us. The weather was reasonably warm (for March) with little wind so it was only about 15 mins into the walk Roger realised he'd left his down jacket and gloves in the car. While he went back to get them I amused myself taking photos.

The bog to come followed by a climb up Sron na Garbh-bheinne.
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The night before I'd read Dogplodder's TR for these hills, she mentioned the Fearsome Farmer from Fersit, who didn't care much for much for hillwalkers or their dogs – so Biggles and Bertie were still on leads at this point.
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The green barn, mentioned in the route description made a great navigation aid coming back.
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We tried to follow the WH route of keeping to the right going up the nose of Sron na Garbh-bheinne, but the snow covering made it difficult to spot the route so we kept further left making our way up the rock and across snow slicks, with a stop for refreshments by a waterfall.
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with a view to Creag Meagaidh group
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Going this way gave us an increasing steep ascent, scrambling up crags interspersed with using the ice axes to cut steps in the frozen snow.

Pristine snow, just waiting for the ice axe :twisted: (The angle of the photo makes this look less steep than it was!)
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At one point I glanced down, between my feet I could see the hillside dropping away, and wondered why I was enjoying myself so much. Me doing a winter scramble (even an easy one like this) – its unheard of; must have been the effect of all that singing!

It was a beautiful day – relatively clear with just enough breeze to keep cool, without causing any problems – and the views were superb. (Notice I didn't take photos mid-scramble – only when we stopped, multi-tasking while scrambling must wait for another day!)

Eventually we reached the summit of Stob Coire Sgriodain, with the wonderful trench of Loch Trieg down to the west.
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Roger and Biggles on the summit.
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Trotsky's revenge??
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The Easains
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Looking north west towards Kintail
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The Creag Meagaidh group and Loch Laggan
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By the time we stopped for lunch it was well after 2:00pm, the backtracking for the forgotten gear, followed by a more demanding route up had taken its toll of the time. We debated the route back, should we miss out Chno Dearg and head down, or continue as planned? The snow covering between Stob Coire Sgriodain and Chno Dearg was continuous, if it was soft that could make for slow progress. Neither of us fancied trying to cross the bog fest we knew was waiting for us below the snow line in the fading light – that seemed like a plan to end up in someone's Grobag - so would it be safer to go back the way we'd come?

After a quick scout round from the summit we spotted footprints going our way which looked reasonably crisp and not too deep, so we continued as planned (to be honest I guess it would have taken me even longer to scramble down the route we'd come up than to follow the original plan!).

Bertie eying up the view en route to Chno Dearg - great view down Glencoe.
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The snow made the going over the boulder fields relatively easy – and the tracks we'd spotted were a great navigation aid so we made good time to Chno Dearg. The only minor mishap was when I got engrossed in watching a pair of Ptarmigans quarter the snowy ground, presumably in search of food, and managed to put my food down snow hole and bang my knee on a hidden rock. :oops:

A quick pit stop at the summit of Chno Dearg was followed by a quick, easy and fun descent over the snow.
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View south west from Chno Dearg
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The view south
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The Ben Alder hills
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We spotted ski tracks, presumably the ski tourers we'd seen in the car park. Oh and Schehallion too :lol:
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We reached the end of the snow knowing we'd plenty of time to get back to Fersit before the light went, so hopefully we'd be spared the Grobag for now. :lol:

The final stretch was not fun – it would have been unkind to count the number of times we slip slidded away out of control; I almost managed to lose a leg again in the bog and then we met the meandering burns. One dog thought crossing and recrossing the burns was great fun, the other one almost went on strike 'cos he'd got fed up with wet paws – dog management problems at the end of the day were not part of the plan :thumbdown: . Finally Biggles (the dog who was playing in the burns) disappeared, and we were nearing Fersit, who would find him first, us or the fearsome farmer? (In the words of the song ...“You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away” :oops: ).

Fortunately he came back to our increasingly desperate calls – he'd just been reconnoitering further to the east, but as soon as was safe the dogs were on the lead as we negotiated the final burns between us and the green barns at Fersit.

We strolled back to the car park just as the sky was turning pink, we were glad the slipping sliding was over – but the scramble up Sron na Garbh-bheinne had been a joy.

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PS. Roger wants me to assure you that despite my flippant writing style, we (well he) did know what we/he were doing and were safe!!
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby JimboJim » Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:57 pm

Wow and double-wow! Superb photo's and makes me all the more jealous, seeing what we missed. No wonder you took that wee bit longer, snapping up the views. Did you notice any shennanigan's with your compass?
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby tall-story » Fri Apr 11, 2014 12:07 am

Hey guys, The photo of the dogs (anchored) :) to that rock is just braw and also photo #7 from the summit down loch Trieg is also pretty good as well. Great report by the way :clap: . C
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby BlackPanther » Fri Apr 11, 2014 10:32 am

Beautiful. So much better in winter conditions. We did them last summer in a scorchio, chased by hungry clegs. One of the best viewpoints in this part of Scotland. We sat on the summit of Chno for over an hour and played "hill spotting" :lol: :lol:
The final descent from Chno was a bog feast even after two weeks of heatwave, so I can imagine it in thawing snow... yuck...
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby Huff_n_Puff » Fri Apr 11, 2014 4:35 pm

JimboJim wrote:Wow and double-wow! Superb photo's and makes me all the more jealous, seeing what we missed. No wonder you took that wee bit longer, snapping up the views. Did you notice any shennanigan's with your compass?


Thanks Jimbo. 'Fraid we didn't use the compass all day - we could see where we were and where we were going - pretty weak excuse really, we should take these things more seriously :lol: Must say that these mountains don't get a good press but they gave wonderful views.
Last edited by Huff_n_Puff on Fri Apr 11, 2014 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby Huff_n_Puff » Fri Apr 11, 2014 4:37 pm

tall-story wrote:Hey guys, The photo of the dogs (anchored) :) to that rock is just braw and also photo #7 from the summit down loch Trieg is also pretty good as well. Great report by the way :clap: . C


Thanks - was there ever a happy ending with Fern?
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby Huff_n_Puff » Fri Apr 11, 2014 4:40 pm

BlackPanther wrote:Beautiful. So much better in winter conditions. We did them last summer in a scorchio, chased by hungry clegs. One of the best viewpoints in this part of Scotland. We sat on the summit of Chno for over an hour and played "hill spotting" :lol: :lol:
The final descent from Chno was a bog feast even after two weeks of heatwave, so I can imagine it in thawing snow... yuck...


You're right about the winter conditions, I hadn't really got high expectations of these hill but they were great fun and stunning views, as for the bogfest, strange how the bad things fade from memory faster than the good :lol:
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby dogplodder » Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:37 pm

Good to see another installment of B & B's adventures and looks like a good day for it even if you did have to work a bit harder for those views! Glad you had no tangles with the FF of F! 8)
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby kev_russ » Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:37 pm

simply stunning pics :clap: Did the Easains back in october and saw zilch in this area!
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby Graeme D » Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:54 am

Superb report and brilliant photos. Especially love the trench of Loch Treig one and Bertie standing out against the skyline en route to Chno Dearg. :clap:
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby Huff_n_Puff » Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:04 pm

Thanks for the comments everyone, I really enjoyed this trip, was on a high for days afterwards, I think partly because I hadn't expected anything quite so stunning - or challenging; worth the effort :D

Thanks for the tip off DP!
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby litljortindan » Sat Apr 18, 2015 12:27 pm

That's a great picture with the cloud shadow on the loch.
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby MountainHare22 » Sat Apr 18, 2015 7:37 pm

Lovely photos, nice to see what the views would of looked like had I been able to see further when I did this Feb/March last year!

It seems that coming down Cho Dearg is never good, I remember it as awful as it was still fairly snow covered and I kept falling through the snow so I would be up to my waist in snow whilst it only seemed knee deep for the men I was with.
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Re: Slip Sliding Away: Chno Dearg & Stob Coire Sgriodain

Postby Huff_n_Puff » Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:48 pm

litljortindan wrote:That's a great picture with the cloud shadow on the loch.
Thanks, I really enjoyed the view from Stob Coire Sgriodain - definitely worth the effort :D

MountainHare22 wrote:Lovely photos, nice to see what the views would of looked like had I been able to see further when I did this Feb/March last year!

It seems that coming down Cho Dearg is never good, I remember it as awful as it was still fairly snow covered and I kept falling through the snow so I would be up to my waist in snow whilst it only seemed knee deep for the men I was with.
You have my sympathy - I remember a bit of a struggle extracting a leg from a bog hole on that descent :D
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