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Saturday Feb 13th I left Glasgow at 05.30am Moidart Bound, heavy snow and darkness shrouded my journey until reaching Fort William. I took the Road to Mallaig with just the wind to contend with, the mountain tops visibly clear of clouds.
I would be stopping at Glenfinnan to liaise with those infamous Munro Compleatists Mountain Thyme (MT) and Rodmiester (RM), now on A Corbett crusade. The Glenfinnan Sleeper Car would provide quirky accommodation for us all.
MT & RM had walked a Corbett Friday in knee deep snow which took them 8.5hrs, and probably sapped some energy. They slept in the Sleeper Car Friday night which afforded them a wee lie in, arising at 7am.
The wonderful accommodation
Our target for today was the three Moidart Corbetts of An Stac, Sgurr na Ba Glaise, & Rois-Bheinn. Our starting position was from Alisary. Booted up we set off at 09.30am and followed the Alisary Burn East through woodland, the wind strong at this low level.
After 1km the woodland comes to an end and the landscape opens up, the terrain now pathless.
We continued East to the foot, and West face of, An Stac. Here we discussed and plotted a route of ascent, straight up and avoid the crags when confronted with them.
I led the way up through slushy snow, tugs of grass, and rocks. It wasn’t long before we decided to whip out the ice axes and don the crampons, this was due to a combination of harder snow, ice, more rocks, & the angle of ascent becoming increasingly steeper.
The ascent was brutal at times and very slow going, the wind was ferocious bringing with it constant flurries of spindrift. All you could do was stop and lean into the hill face and keep the head down.
I was trying out some new lighter boots and strap on crampons, Asolo Tribe GV & Salewa Alpinist Walk. It took some time to feel confident but they both performed well. I’ll keep the Asolo Sherpa GV & Grivel G12 semi-rigids for more technical terrain.
After 3hrs we finally reached the summit of An Stac. We didn’t hang around as the wind was gusting at least 60mph. Got the summit shots and went searching for some respite from the unrelenting wind.
Food & Shelter stop
We then descended the craggy South face of An Stac and up North to Bealach an Fhiona
From here we ascended SW to the summit of Sgurr na Ba Glaise.
On reaching the summit I was literally blown of my feet, such was the ferocity of the wind. Thankfully the summit covered a large enough area that I wasn’t blown downwards.
Again we didn’t hang around (although MT obviously needed a rest!), some quick photos and away…
We retraced our steps back to Bealach an Fhiona then shot out West ascending to Rois-Bheinn’s two summits. The wind appeared to have increased in velocity but thankfully it was behind us and made it easy going to the summits.
Now ascending to Rois-Bheinn
The views out to the Islands of Rum & Skye had always been on display but from here they looked utterly sublime, an incredible vista for the eyes.
As we did on the last two summits we quickly took a few photos and started making our way downwards, we had decided to descend the West shoulder of Rois-Bheinn for over 1km then strike North for another 1km eventually taken us through woodland to the road.
The light was now fading but the views remained stunning.
It was very tricky descending, more so when reaching the woodland. By now darkness had fell upon us but we managed to navigate the rough terrain, climbing two high fences, and reached the safety of the road.
1km later and we reached the car, it had taken us 8.5hrs. Rod drove us back to Glenfinnan.
At Glenfinnan we all showered and tucked into our food. I had a bean casserole whilst MT cooked steak for her and Rod, MT also made us hot apple pie and custard. I washed it all down with a bottle of March of the Penguins, Rod & MT guzzled down a bottle of wine.
MT was a trooper and washed all our dishes. I can’t believe no nice man has snapped her up yet, she cooks, cleans, likes a drink, walks mountains, is generous & caring (NHS worker)…if only she was 10 years younger, just way too old for me!!
The Moidart Corbetts are absolutely stunning and provide a very challenging day in full on winter conditions, but the payoff is well worth it. Rod & MT provided great company and laughs galore. We would all be walking again in the morning, it would be Rods 100th Corbett.