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As the smoke finally settled on the flaming ruins of the 2016 Inchnadamph meet (what goes on in Inchnadamph stays in Inchnadamph), four intrepid souls and one bewildered pooch stayed on to see if things looked any better without rain ...
Our group consisted of my son Alex, Lynne (Callandergirl), Hugh (Borderhugh), the dog Maisie and me, and the decision was to do Quinag, but having been initially beaten back by yet more rain in the morning, the start was delayed until nearly midday. No more than a few minutes drive up the road from the lodge (emphasis on the "up" - you start about 240m to the good ...), we parked the car and sent off. The path starts across the road from the small (and easily missed) car park, and there is even an instruction manual for the hill (good old JMT).
After about 300 metres the path forks and the WH route goes sharp left, up onto the wide eastern flank of the first Corbett summit, Spidean Coinich:
Hugh going a bit off piste, Loch Assynt behind:
Looking north across to Sail Gharbh, which would be the final summit of the day:
On a small top (probably a Bryan), point 620 on the map, on the way up, Lynne looking a tad mafioso:
A reasonable path works it's way up from the top at 620m, onto the clag-bound summit:
Obligatory summit self-timer snap:
Luckily this was to be the only view point of the day which was spoilt by the clag, but we had a little spot of fun looking for the onwards path; there are some fearsome drops to the north-east, and the path down starts on the south-west edge of the small summit plateau, and gives a wonderful airy (at times) descent down the ridge to Bealach a Chornaidh.
Start of the descent off Spidean Coinich:
Lochan Ruadh:
Airy descent:
Looking back to Spidean Coinich, obviously now out of clag:
This quite a rollercoaster of a walk, as well as the three Ronnie Corbett summits (each with minimum 500 feet prominence by definition!), there are significant other tops to clamber over, notably point 714 (just where it says Quinag on the OS map), and the unnamed and un-heighted top coming up from Bealach a Chornaidh, about 740m in height. This top forms the junction of ridges from all three Corbett summits, but only has to be summited once, and has fantastic views in all directions:
Un-named top with second Corbett, Sail Ghorm, in the distance:
Looking back to Spidean Coinich:
Sail Ghorm with bumps in foreground:
NNE to the Kylesku Bridge:
There now starts a hike of about a mile to the summit of Sail Ghorm, Corbettt no.2, made interesting by the presence of a couple of minor bumps and some spectacular views to the south and west.
Suilven, rather coyly showing a bit of itself to us, with poseur in the foreground:
Onwards to Sail Ghorm:
Loch Glencoul to the north-east:
Finally on the summit of Sail Ghorm, didn't quite make it round in time for the shot!
The final leg to the third Corbett summit laid out clearly, it involved re-ascending almost all the way to point 740m, the path peeling off to Sail Garbh at about the 700m mark. This was actually no problem, a bit of mild scrambling to entertain, and all counting to the final ascent.
Knobbly bits to re-ascend:
Suilven almost free of cloud now:
Easy scrambling, even for a small Border Terrier:
Final climb up to the summit of Sail Gharbh:
Made it!
More posing:
Looking south-east, Loch Assynt with the white buildings of Inchnadamph Lodge (or what remained of it after the WH meet...), on the right of picture. The Munro Conival still hiding beneath a thin layer of cloud on the left of picture:
The ridge from Sail Ghorm looking moody:
Spidean Coinich, our first summit of the day, basking in the early evening sun:
On our way back down. After initially following the ascent path for about 500 metres, the descent path splits off to the south (left), to wend its way into the lower slopes of Bealach a Chornaidh.
Spidean Coinich with Suilven behind:
Out to sea beyond the Sail Ghorm ridge:
Spidean Coinich from the bealach:
Homeward bound with Conival and (just) Ben More Assynt in the distance:
And the seductive promise of glorious hills even further north; Arkle, Foinaven perhaps?
Conival, with Ben More Assynt just revealing itself as the dark ridge in the distance:
Definitely in my current top ten of Scottish hill days. Just about the only place where three Corbett summits can be gained in a day without rupturing anything. The overall distance and ascent figures put it easily alongside most two-Munro days, but with so much interest all around. I enjoyed the later start, it gave us great light in the late afternoon for photos, so much to recommend it.
Finished off by fish and chips in Lochinver. I rest my case.
