The House of Kintail and its bastards

[walkingpoles]

The aim was basically to check whether Kipling's the female of the species is more deadly than the male also holds for mountains. And is it only me, or are the names of the mountains north of Glen Shiel more unpronouncable than elsewhere? Dubbing them sisters and brothers certainly helps.


My former flatmate and me teamed up again and we headed to Morvich where we set up wild camp around midnight. Lovely spot, a bit close to civilization, but that couldn't be helped. Unfortunately, the direct way up the Sisters is fenced off, so that we headed to Glen Shiel and took the path up. I assume that we missed the first non-munro sister that way as we didn't climb the summit to the west of the bealach when reaching the ridge. There were many local maxima on the ridge, certainly more than 5. We guessed stillborn sisters. The ridge itself is lovely and it is quite natural to keep going over to the brothers too. Well, it got late, so after the second brother we turned north and had a very fine ridge with some exposed and scrambly bits to Camban bothy. There were four of us staying there that night and we spent a lovely evening. In the morning, half of the Alltbeithe youth hostel took the opportunity to visit us en passage. Couldn't help the feeling to be in a zoo (in the other part than usual, that is). Nothing wrong with proudly presenting bothy culture to hiking folks.

We walked back to Morvich over Bheinn Fhada. The ridge after the summit which is in the direction to Morvich offered fine scrambling. There is a path for most of it (well, probably for all of it, we just missed it in the end), which affirmed us, that it is not a stupid idea to go there. Otherwise it can't be seen whether the ridge leads to a dead end or not. The direct descent took us to some fences. Luckily the gates were open. I didn't see a good way down, which would not have been a fair detour and avoided the fences and private houses.

After another wild camp, we drove to Cluanie and did the last brother. And the bastard (Ciste Dubh), I assume, to its north. My friend then headed back to work and I made it for the youth hostel for some more munroing. During my CWT last year I learnt the lesson that, if you find a spot so dry that you can lie down and have a nap, you should do it. It's rare enough. With the dry spell at the beginning of may, there was a lot of napping to come. Also it was great to be back at a different time of the year.

The next day I kind of got carried away. After a slow start and some napping further down the glen Affric, I climbed Mam Sodhail, Carn Eige and Ben Fionnlaidh. On top of Mam Sodhail is a miniature House of the Undying. It features a roofless interior, no dragons though. As water levels were extremely low, I descended from Ben Fionnlaidh into the glen and up Mullach nan Dheiragain which I didn't climb last year when passing by. Never leave unfinished business. On the way south I didn't bother to climb An Socach and the unpronouncable hill again due to looming darkness, but cut through and headed straight for the hostel where I arrived sometime after 10. The idea was to reach it without using the torch, but I had to switch it on to find the stepping stones over the river next to the hostel. Luckily I had advised Steve in the morning not to not call mountain rescue before midnight, so that was sorted.

Found some custard in the free food shelf. Hurray. Also good to know, that they now sell dehydrated food at the hostel.

The next day was on a bit more leasurely pace. After some napping (bliss) close to loch a Bhealaich, I made it to A ghlas bheinn, descended north through some amazing and remote scenery and visited the falls of Glomach. Impressive even in draught. Caught up with some Cape Wrathians to exchange stories and back to the hostel.

On my last day I walked over Mullach Fraoch Choire and A Craileach to Cluanie. Conditions were extremely dry. I hope there were no bushfires in the area. After reaching the road I couldn't find a lift (well, got 2 lifts offered, much appreciated, but they were both for Skye. One handed me a beer. Cheers mate!) Citylink took me down to Glasgow and Scotrail to Edinburgh. And my fitness level was a lot better than when I started. Made me ready for the Alps.

Bridge at Alltbeithe

House of the Undying on Mam Sodhail

Loch a Bhealaich

View from A Ghlas Bheinn

A Ghlas Bheinn inspired

Falls of Glomach in draught

Little House of the Undying on A Craileach

One for you, Jaxter

Magnificent Gorse

[Jaxter]

Nice pose And a decent tally for a few days

[walkingpoles]

Nice pose And a decent tally for a few days

Exaggerating in spring helps over the summer

I'll hold on to that strategy. Also there are some obscure bothies to check out next spring.