by birdiesboss » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:04 pm
Date walked: 19/07/2010
Time taken: 5 hours
Distance: 12 km
Ascent: 1000m
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An interesting and surprisingly tough day out in the hills.
This is probably a slightly unusual approach to the Corbett Sgurr nan Eugallt. I was staying the incomparable Skiary - a tiny croft on the N Side of Loch Hourn, run for the summer by mountain mad Tom and his girlfriend Claire who produce all of the food - it's great and about the only place to stay on the N side of Loch Hourn!
I decided to spend the day climbing their 'house mountain' Sgurr Sgiath Airgh. Even from the map this looks fairly daunting - climbed from sea level with no paths! Anyway, left the house and followed the Barrisdale footpath for about half a mile up to the top of the first hump. From there, I cut off up the steep hill slope until at around 460m, the Coire Sgiath Airigh is reached. This looks a bit like a small version of the HIdden Valley - wide, flat and surrounded by hill. From here, you just have to pick what you think is the best line (they are all steep and rocky) and head off upwards. From now on you just keep climbing until the surprisingly large cairn is reached on the summit of Sgurr Sgiath Airgh. Note that due to the vast number of false summits you almost don't see the cairn until you walk into it! The view from the top here is immense including the Cullins, Eigg, Loch Quoich and other islands and in the distance to the South a lovely view of Ben Nevis. Almost makes the climb seem worth it!
From there it's a simple step across to the summit of Sgurr nan Eugallt which is marked with a concrete trig point. You can miss the hump out in the middle between the two and you go past some Lochans that were looking so inviting that I even managed a swim. The dog looked on from the side very confused! From here, I followed the ridge along and desceded rapidly before cutting off and heading down the Alt Coire Mhicrail. This it turned out was a bit of a mistake. The descent was steep and rocky and resulted in a couple of slips and bruised elbows! Following the river down is also difficult on confused deer paths with several tricky crossings of tributaries with quite long falls in prospect if you slip! Doing it again I'd probably take the same way down as I went up.
Anyway after a very hot humid walk down I finally arrived back at the croft to be served with lashings of tea and scones. In summary a b***er of a climb up, followed by great views and a b****rd of a trip down, but I didn't even see a single footprint, let alone person all day!