Sgurr a' Choise traverse

[rob munbett]

I was staying at the Corran bunkhouse with friends and we woke to a beautiful Saturday morning. Chris and I decided upon a traverse of Sgurr a' Choise, with the potential to add in Meall Mor - if time and energy allowed. We left one car in the parking area on the A82 at the foot of Gleann-leac-na-muidhe and then drove back to Ballachuilish to park at the visitor centre. We walked up past the school and started up the track in Gleann an Fhiodh. Soon, we could see our target for the day.

Sgurr a' Choise from Gleann an Fhiodh

We carried on up the glen until just short of the large cairn on the track. We had both been this way before on several occasions on the way over to the Corbett, Fraochaidh. We hoped, this time, to find the path marked on the OS map heading SSW from the cairn but, again, we couldn't find it on the ground. We had to plough up some horrendous terrain to get to the SW ridge of the hill.

The SW ridge of Sgurr a' Choise from Gleann an Fhiodh

Approaching the crest of the ridge through some of the 'challenging' terrain

Finally, we attained the crest of the ridge and we sat for a while to take on some food and fluid, rest a while .... and enjoy the views. About 2km of ridge stretched ahead of us, with quite a few ups and downs (as usual!) but any sense of weariness was much diminished by the wonderful views all around.

The view along the ridge to the summit

Surprisingly, there was a good boot-track all the way long the ridge to the summit which was a great place to sit for a while to enjoy a late lunch.

On the summit, looking over to Meall Mor, Aonach Eagach and Bidean nam Bian

The summit cairn with Beinn a' Bhethir beyond

After a while, we set off steeply down the SE ridge, following a line of old fence posts leading to a style over a deer fence.

Descending the SE ridge, style in centre picture

By this time we had accepted that we were not heading up Meall Mor so we continued drop down towards the confluence of the two streams in Gleann-leac-na-muidhe. Again, though, what appeared to be easy on the map was made much more demanding because of the nature of the terrain and we both breathed a sigh of relief when we crossed the streams without too much bother and wandered through the gate on to the road out. There was,though, one further trial: just as we were getting very weary - a very boggy detour of a by-pass path round the houses and gardens in the glen - which was fair enough but just about finished me off. We reached the car by hobbling along the road for a bit and it was great relief to get the boots off and fall into the big comfy seats!

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[Graeme D]

Looks brilliant, if slightly unfair when you consider the nick of the weather when I did this back in April!

[rob munbett]

Yes, having looked at your photos, we certainly had a better day of it, weather wise. However, you did manage up Meall Mor, which is more than this pair of old crocks with new replacement knee and hip and recently torn gastrocnemius muscle and damaged achilles did. Well, maybe that's hardly surprising! I remember the days .........

[Limpalot]

I remember two "old crocs" (your words) that day setting off in great style from the car park by the tourist info office in Ballachulish and being so engrossed in chatting that they turned up the wrong side of the River Laroch and were then seen to be poring over the map trying to find where they were/should be! Then turning around and retracing their steps to the bridge and away up the correct side. So much for years of experience.
But it was a fantastic day as the photographs show, good company and just so good to be out there.