Fuar Tholl

[honey_munster]

Fuar Tholl
25 August 2010
with Honey and Tess

On holiday in the Gairloch area and I managed to take Honey and Tess up 3 Torridonian Sandstone Corbetts. The first of these was Fuar Tholl.

I had taken Honey up to Coire Lair on a previous trip (see avatar), but having bagged Sgorr Ruadh she was flagging, so we had left Fuar Tholl for another day. We took the normal route starting from the parking spot and heading up the track past Achnashellach station. After crossing the railway and heading up the track, there's a sharp left at the track junction and then after a few hundred metres look out for the post where the path leaves the forest track (there's currently some stones spelling "Hill" and an arrow). The path passes through a gate and then you're on the stalker's path on the E bank of the River Lair.

At NG991502 take the branch W heading to the col between Fuar Tholl and Sgorr Ruadh. I had been concerned about the river crossing given that it had rained practically all day 2 days earlier. Fortunately the river wasn't too high, although I had a short wade and Tess required some assistance to get across. As we ascended the path, Mainreachan buttress comes into view. We strike S from the path and head towards the base of the buttress.



We ascend the gully to the left of the buttress. The scree is not too bad as the slope starts to relent by then and it's fairly well compacted. From the top of the gully we head left and soon reach the summit.

Honey & Tess with Liathach, Beinn Liath Mor and Beinn Eighe in the background


Honey with Maol Chean-Dearg in the background


Mainreachan Buttress


We then traversed the hill, first to the top of the buttress

Click here for QuickTime panorama

and then over Creag Mainnrichean to give views of the buttress from the other side.




The descent from Creag Mainnrichean wasn't great. We ended up in a loose sandstone gully and then quartzite scree. But to compensate Honey had a good time sampling the many lochans at the col before we picked up the stalker's path again and headed back down. I even managed to find stepping stones back across the river slightly upstream from where we came up so Tess and I kept our feet dry.

[Graeme D]

Great stuff. Have been up in Torridon twice in the last couple of years and would dearly have loved to do Fuar Tholl but never got round to it yet. Next time for sure!

[mountain coward]

I hope there's an easier route than up the scree either side of the buttress - defo not my sort of thing - looks horrific! Great photos though...

[honey_munster]

The route up to the left of the buttress was actually no problems at all. Most of it's on grass and you only reach the sandstone scree, which has a pretty well consolidated path in it, higher up as the slope starts to ease.

I found the descent from Creag Mainnrichean to the bealach more of a problem as we came down a steep, loose gully and then the slope below was covered in quartzite stones.

You can see both lines on this stitched photo from coming off Sgorr Ruadh in 2007.

[Merry-walker]

That is one huge rock!! Think I'll stick to small HuMPs with big summits. Great pictures Honey

[mountain coward]

It looks pretty scary from any angle on that stitched photo! Hope there's an easier way up than any of those!