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My luck was in as I woke on Saturday morning in my Fort William B&B - it was another glorious hot day
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I was a little unsure as to my plans for the day. My legs felt a little weary so I wanted to keep my options open for an easy day if necessary. However, the view across the Ballachulish bridge to Beinn a' Bheithir settled matters. It was looking fantastic.
I started this walk from the carpark in Gleann a' Chaolais (rather than the Ballachulish route detailed on this site) with as light a pack as possible, choosing to ditch my waterproofs, GPS and even my map cover
. Despite the light pack, it took a good hour of walking to shake the previous day's tiredness out my legs. Again, it was a scorching day and I was conscious of keeping my fluid levels up. There was an excellent signposted path leading through the forest to Sgorr Dhearg. This path looks fairly new and must be preferable to the forestry tracks indicated in the guidebooks. These sorts of plantations get a bad name (often with good reason) amongst walkers but I enjoyed the mixture of light and shade and the path (I would guess intentionally) still offered great views across Loch Linnhe and of the imposing peak of Sgorr Dhonuill.
Probably due to the sense of seclusion offered by the forest, I found that by
not concentrating on the summit I gained distance and height surprisingly easily. The path left the forest around the 500m mark directly beneath the unseen summit of Sgorr Dhearg. Rather than follow it to the bealach between the 2 Munro peaks, I headed straight up the very steep western side of Sgorr Dhearg. I made the ascent slowly, taking small careful steps to ease the strain on my thighs and enjoy the weather and views. The views upon reaching the ridge took my breath away.
A little bit of scrambling brought me to the summit of Sgorr Dhearg. I ate a long lunch sunbathing in a small shelter about 20m to the SW of the summit looking to Glens Creran and Etive - pure bliss
. I have read a few other reports from this day on hills further north and east suggesting there was a cold northerly wind... well it sure wasn't a problem here. Cool perhaps but I didn't need anything more than a t-shirt all day
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I set off again down to the 757m bealach and had another short rest before heading quite steeply to the summit of Sgorr Dhonuill. The last 50m requires some scrambling and the main path is VERY exposed for about 10m. I opted to avoid this section by scrambling over boulders to the left. This slight detour may have involved the use of hands and knees but it did negate the risk of a very long fall
. I had the grassy summit to myself and, again, I just gawked at the views, particularly along Loch Linnhe to the ocean with Ben More (Mull) in the hazy distance.
After another break I decided it was time to move on and I headed back down to the col. This time I opted for the vertigo inducing 10m of the main path right above the cliffs - I must be bonkers
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From here it was just a case of following the fenceposts to regain the outward path.
This was another wonderful day on a fabulous mountain. These 2 Munros really have it all - steep, dramatic, amazing views, impressive ridge walk, airy scramble, quiet forest. One of my top 5 Munro walks so far
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