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After days of heavy rain approached Fuar Tholl from Balnacra to avoid the river crossings. We were not quite sure exactly what to expect, but the pathless approach, scrambling up to Fuar Tholl along the top of the South Cliffs and winding our way down the nose all made for an adventurous outing and questing around to find the best route all added to the fun.
- The Route
There was parking along the side of the road between the level crossing and the village and we were walking by 9:15.
The first challenge of the day was gaining access to the hillside but once across the gully and the fence we were surprised to find a path running parallel with the road. The path came from nowhere and ended abruptly at a stream.
Fortuitously, this was the burn we were intending to follow, so up we went, keeping to the edge of its deep, tree lined gorge.
- The Charming Gorge
It was a battle to forge a path through a forest of chest high bracken, wondering if we would emerge before we were devoured by ticks
. We out foxed the blood suckers and reached the open hillside where the only difficulties were finding a route up steep and at times slippery terrain and avoiding the mutiple man traps created by fence posts and wires, cunningly hidden in the heather.
- A Forest of Bracken
- Looking back across Loch Dughaill
The incline levelled out at about 400m and the gorge came to an end, making for an easy stream crossing as we headed right towards the base of the South East Coire of Fuar Tholl. We traversed Coire Dubh, aiming to stay below the craggy slopes but were led astray by a natural bias that had us veering higher than intended.
- Traverse below the slopes.
Fuar Tholl was a magnificent site as its summit came into view, and even better when seen backed by blue skies later in the day.
- Looking back at Fuar Tholl Summit
Walking on rough terrain you spend a lot of time looking at the ground, providing lots of opportunities for enjoying the wild flowers. Secreted under the heather and ferns I spotted one I had not seen before. I think it's small cow wheat, a semi parisitic plant, found in a limited number of sites in Scotland (please let me know if I have got it wrong).
- ? A Small Cow Wheat
We reached the the South East Coire at 11:45, so decided to have an early lunch by the stream and contemplate the way ahead.
- Early Lunch and a View of the route
The South Cliffs of Fuar Tholl are topped by a rocky ridge which leads directly to the summit.
- Top of the South Cliffs. About 300m ascent of easy to moderate scrambling
The ridge is initally quite broad with lots of easy angled slabs. There are some grassy paths between them but they looked muddy and slippery. The rocky slabs had great friction and although my boots seemed to stick to the rock like limpets I am of little faith would have appreciated a little more in the way of hand holds
.
- Lots of easy angled slabs
Higher up there were some steeper sections
- Some steeper sections
but at least these had hand holds
- And a close up
although there was plenty of loose rock and some very large boulders were improbably balanced
.
- The last slabs were the trickiest
then
- A loose and muddy grove
finally a short walk to the summit
- 14 :30 Fuar Tholl summit
The magic of Torridon mountains near and far,
- Across to Meall Chean Dearg
- A distant Liathac
And after providing us with much need refreshment Jeremy Jetboil insisted on a summit pose.
- Jeremy Jetboil posing with Bein Liath Mor
It was time to leave the summit but Fuar Tholl was still to delight and excite us and not always at the same time.
- Time to go
We walked around the top of the Coire, admiring the South Cliffs before coming to a delightfully narrow ridge, initially an eroded path led below some tottering stone pinnacles but before long the bypass path seemed less safe than joining the pinnacles on top of the ridge with fingers crossed that you would not be the one to push them over the edge.
- Crumbling Narrow Ridge
Relieved to have left the ridge as we found it,
we then balanced, wobbled and scooted over the loose stones and boulders on the sharp slope leading down to the nose.
- Descending the boulders
- Nose Ahead
On the map the slopes of Leth Chreag looked like a steep mix of crags and boulder fields, but this was a maleficent illusion, hiding grippy slabs at easy walking angles, interspersed with stripes of greenery. Before long we were back at the base of Coire and Jeremy was steaming up a brew under the waterfall
.
- The Slopes of Leth Chreag and the South East Coire of Fuar Tholl
- Brewing up under the waterfall
We followed a much better line on the way back, the upward pull had lost some of its power
On the final slopes we took a diagonal towards the road, there was a large boulder in line with the level crossing and we avoided most of the bracken by heading towards it. As we got closer we became aware that we were being guided by a dark power.
- A demonic presidential doppelgänger
We were back at the car at 18:45 having experienced the magic of a Torridon and pondering two great mysteries how had we taken 9.5hrs to complete a 9km walk and where were the midges.