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I had Good Friday off work and had been planning a walk for a while, but I'd initially just envisaged some Corbetts or something, since it was still fairly early in the year. But with an unanticipated heatwave forecast
, I opted for something a bit more ambitious and decided to have a look at the Aonachs, which I still had to do.
By way of information, I had a technical problem posting 5 of my photos for this WR, which took me ages to figure out. I had put an apostrophe in the file names (because they were photos either of Sgurr a' Mhaim or Sgurr a' Bhuic) and this caused me to get a repeated "Bad request" error message when I tried to post them into my WR. I'm sure I've successfully posted photos with apostrophised file names in the past, so this seems to be a new issue. Anyway, I removed the apostrophes and they then posted fine: problem solved
. I mention this just in case anyone else runs into this admittedly esoteric issue
!
Anyway, I got up to the car park at Glen Nevis road end reasonably early, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky
- I couldn't believe my luck, and set off quickly before the weather changed its mind.
The Nevis Gorge path is a delight - surely one of Scotland's best short walks. I've only walked it before in reverse (while tackling the Ring of Steall widdershins), and it was fascinating to walk it in the outwards direction for the first time.
In this direction, of course, the sudden emergence from the narrow, rocky gorge onto the pancake-flat Plain of Steall, with Steall Falls in the background, comes as a real moment of revelation...
I walked on past the wire bridge (which I'd arguably found the scariest bit of the Ring of Steall round
), and headed on up the Glen Nevis path without crossing the Water of Nevis. The ongoing path is in reasonably good nick, and it wasn't much further to the footbridge across the Allt Coire nan Laogh at the ruins of Steall steading, where the proper climbing begins.
I headed uphill to the right of the Allt, initially on a reasonably good path, although this gradually petered up higher up the flanks of Sgurr a' Bhuic (which is Aonach Beag's attractively pointy southern Top). It got steeper as I ascended further, especially after the path had given up the ghost, but as is often the case on a steep ascent there were some fine views by way of distraction - particularly of Binnein Mor and Binnein Beag, two of my favourite Mamores and an impressive double act when viewed from this angle.
The last pull up onto Sgurr a' Bhuic's south ridge was a real grind up steep grassy slopes. This time, the best views were of Ben Nevis, which had come into view over to the west, with a tantalising glimpse of its awe-inspiring North Face
.
Another grand view back south, this time to Sgurr a' Mhaim a.k.a. "Scar and Maim", the highest Mamore and a very impressive mountain from this angle, with An Gearanach's steep northern flanks to its left:
...And another impressive vista of the Ben, with even more of the North Face visible now:
It was a real relief to cross the last wee bit of boulderfield and reach Sgurr a' Bhuic's sizeable summit cairn at last. This was another of those Moments of Revelation, with the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra playing in my head as a huge view of the Grey Corries opened up suddenly to the east:
Unfortunately, however, my euphoria didn't last long. Sgurr a' Bhuic may be Munro height, but it is only a Top of Aonach Beag, and there was more than another 250 metres of ascent to go - Aonach Beag is one of Scotland's giants, after all! It looked dauntingly steep and bouldery, too
...
Nothing ventured, and all that, however … I made my way down to the bealach between Sgurr a' Bhuic and the next Top to the north, Stob Coire Bhealaich, and started up the bouldery slopes. There was a good path on the other side of the bealach, which did help a bit, but all the same it was a truly thigh-busting ascent. I'm a bit out of condition (oh, all right then, I suppose what I mean is "fat"
) after my winter break from Munros, and my quads were starting to cramp up horribly. I just stopped every fifty metres for a break, however, and I got there eventually. Thankfully, the gradient eased considerably higher up, and I started to be able to actually enjoy the walking again. A grand view back to Sgurr a' Bhuic with Sgurr a' Mhaim in the distance almost made up for it all ...
Higher up again, there were some highly photogenic patches of snow (thankfully not across the path at this stage!) with an impressive drop to the north-east.
A fascinating glimpse of the Aonachs' impressively sheer northeastern cliffs, known as the Back Corries:
Again it was a real relief to reach Stob Coire Bhealaich at last... again however, my euphoria was short-lived
. It was still not a Munro, after all, only a Top … and Aonach Beag was STILL looking quite a bit higher up
! There also looked to be a worrying shed-load of snow higher up. Ben Nevis was also (successfully) looming in a very threatening manner over to the west
.
I wasn't about to give up at this late stage, however, so I plodded on doggedly. The last section was a real Snow Plod, right enough, but at least the gradient was very gentle by then, and the snow didn't prove to be too much of an issue. Finding the cairn, however, was somewhat more of a challenge - according to my GPS, I was standing right on top of it when I took this photo - presumably it's buried under several metres of the White Stuff
!
I headed rather gingerly onwards through the big summit snowfield, using other walkers' boot-prints as a guide, and thankfully the snow didn't go on too much further. The onward route to Aonach Mor looked much more straightforward, and almost entirely snow-free
! I was also giving some though to how I was going to get down again. I had initially been concerned that the usual descent route down the steep western spur of Aonach Mor to its bealach with Carn Mor Dearg might prove to be impassable due to snow, and I was apologising in advance to my quads in case I ended up having to descend back over Aonach Beag …. However, to my delight, it looked as though Aonach Mor's western spur was snow-free after all
.
Looking back across the narrow bealach towards Aonach Beag, it was a decided relief that I hadn't ended up having to cross this under snow
!
Looking back at Aonach Beag from Aonach Mor's summit environs, I could see just how deep its summit snowfield had been - no wonder the cairn had gotten a bit lost
!
Aonach Mor's cairn thankfully wasn't engulfed in snow, and I couldn't resist a Summit Selfie. Unfortunately taken at a rather odd angle from below: definitely not my best aspect, nor my most dashingly-outdoorsy hat, but I include this for potential entertainment value
.
Some Mamores as seen from Aonach Mor's summit cairn:
I headed off back southwards from the cairn, this time trending slightly westwards but still keeping well clear of the steep western drop-off. To my relief, I soon picked up a faint path (much less distinct than the main path between the two summits, but still clear enough) that eventually led to the descent route down that steep western spur to the bealach with Carn Mor Dearg. The top of the descent path is marked with two sizeable cairns, which would certainly be useful in poor visibility. The descent path itself is unmissable once you find it, but also steep and badly eroded: I took my time over it. To be honest, by now I didn't have much option since I was wabbit
! Again there was a grand view by way of distraction, this time of the CMD Arete and the North Face of the Ben:
It was a real relief to eventually get down to the Carn Mor Dearg bealach. Yet again, however, my relief didn't last long: it had been a long, steep descent down to here, but this bealach is still a somewhat unfeasible 830 metres above sea level!! The ongoing descent down Coire Giubhsachan is a bit rough and largely pathless, too
. Ah well, the sun was still shining, and there were still some fine views for distraction. An interesting rocky wee foothill known as Meall Cumhann was standing guard to the west of Coire Giubhsachan's mouth, and "Scar and Maim" and An Gearanach looked to be enjoying themselves in the sunshine over on the other side of Glen Nevis.
Lower down, there was another fine view estwards to Binnein Beag - a lovely wee hill with a properly remote feel; I did it in May last year along with Sgurr Eilde Mor, and thoroughly enjoyed the outing
.
It was a proper relief, and a fairly lasting one for once, to finally get back down to Steall Plain, where the Falls were looking very impressive in the evening sunlight.
A quick (well, okay, not particularly quick) stoat back along the Nevis Gorge path, and I was back at the car.
It took me a mildly embarrassing nine hours, which is a full hour more than the Book Time … but a fantastic day out nevertheless, amidst some truly epic scenery, and in wonderful weather too
!