Carn Mor Dearg via Meall Cumhann

[Les Stuart]

Three of us set off from the top car park in Glen Nevis via Meall Cumhann. Since we had done Ben Nevis at some time in the past we just wanted to do the CMD as well as part of the Arete. Sounded a good idea, though in practise it was murder.
Walked up through the gorge into the open glen with the Steall falls in full flow.

Steall Falls

The Mamores

Kept to the path for a short distance then headed north to Meall Cumhann which was a steep climb. We stopped short of the summit and traversed round to discover we had to drop 100m before we started our next very steep climb up a grassy slope before picking up a path on a ridge which took us to the boulder field. On the climb up from Meall Cumhann the rain came on and lasted all the way to the top of the boulder field. Not very pleasant conditions. We worked our way through the boulders and came out onto the arete just at a sign that said 60m abseil here.

The Arete

Carn Mor Dearg

We decided to give that a miss and headed round the arete to the summit of CMD and the cloud was beginning to lift. When we got there we had clear views except for the Ben which was still covered in cloud and picked out a small patch of snow on its cliff face.

Small Patch of Snow

I can now understand why there is climbing accidents on the Ben's north face when you see the corries up close and also the attraction to the climbers.
The arete was like Suachiehall Street as there was bodies constantly coming in the opposite direction that we were going and in a couple of the photos you might see people on the ridge. I stopped to let walkers past and it gave me a few minutes rest as the steep climbs earlier in the day had taken its toll on of my legs.

Loch Eil

Ben Nevis and Arete in foreground

After a short rest we headed east down the path that takes you to the beallach between CMD and Aonoch Beag and at the bottom we had some food and drink and watched the rain clouds heading our way, which duly arrived later in about 15 minutes for another soaking, though this time the rain did not last any more than about 30 minutes. From there we set off south down a path which followed the Allt Coire Guibhsachan to the river Nevis,then back along the path through the gorge to the car park.

Allt Coire Guibhsachan

While it was a good day in terms of achieving our objective, I would not recommend the route that we took to go up because of its steepness.

[Barnety2000]

An interesting ascent route to the CMD arete! I actually looked down at this route from the top of Ben Nevis back in July and considered it a potential option. Instead though, I climbed up the way you appear to have descended (through Glen Nevis, up the Allt Coire Giubhsachan, then up the east ridge to CMD) and went over Ben Nevis and arrived back at North Face carpark. Here is my walk report: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6120.

Carn Mor Dearg is one of my favourite mountains, as you can tell from my avatar!

[Les Stuart]

An interesting ascent route to the CMD arete! I actually looked down at this route from the top of Ben Nevis back in July and considered it a potential option. Instead though, I climbed up the way you appear to have descended (through Glen Nevis, up the Allt Coire Giubhsachan, then up the east ridge to CMD) and went over Ben Nevis and arrived back at North Face carpark. Here is my walk report: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6120.

Carn Mor Dearg is one of my favourite mountains, as you can tell from my avatar!

Yes you are correct, your ascent was our descent and as you say the walk down beside Allt Coire Giubhsachan was boggy especially with the recent rain.