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Drove up to Poolewe on monday for the October break with the family. From Ben Lomond onwards not a cloud in the sky. I was in hill heaven pointing out all the mountins i had climbed & treats still to come to my good lady wife, who did well to maintain her interest. (not an uphill walker loves the flat).
Took the costal route so i could have a look at the target for my one walking day, wednesday, when i had arranged to meet my friend Lindsay & his son Mikey to climb Beinn Alligin via the horns. Amazing views, just stunning.
Lindsay picked me up at Kinlochewe at 8am & we headed for the start, cloud hanging at about 600 meters! Picked up a guy walking the Torriden road who was going to Beinn Eighe, who kindly told us that it was a 20% cloud free day.
Having looked at the route on here & having a slightly nervous disposition we decided to do the round horns first, having seen Murial Gray do it this way on youtube.
After the gradual start we arrived at the base of the horns around 350 meters. It's then a steep slog up to 600 meters requiring quite a lot of hand work. If you are coming the other way there are a series of cairns leading to the path down which would not be obvious from above, but was visible to us all the way up.
Whilst the Horns are narrow there was only one bit that gave me a shudder, coming of the first one & a couple of points i wished i was two inches taller, but no real dificulties. For the squeamish the by pass path at about 750 meters is obvious, but the horns are not realy any more dificult than what you have to do to get to that point. My bravado caused by the fact that we could not see a thing!.
After dropping down from the third horn the ascent of Sgurr Mhor is a relentles bugger. From the summit in the clag you need to remember to navigate round the eag dubh which i am sure is obvious when you can see. A steep decent & another hard pull brings you to Tom na Gruagaich.
From there its not far to the path down the coire which is marked by a cairn. Scree at first improving as you go, quite steep most of the way, untill you are below 600 meters again.
All in all a great hill & although it is easy to say i felt this was the better way round to do it. If you have a knot of nerves about the horns they are out of the way & you can enjoy the munros. Plus having gone up that way thinking the whole time i'm glad i am not coming down this way!
- Beinn Alligin (Monday)
- Alligin, Dearg & Liathach
- Familly on Red Point Beach (Tuesday)
- Coire nan Laogh
- Mikey on the narrowing ridge about 700 meters
- Summit of Na Rathanan
- Summit Sgurr Mhor
- Eag Dubh
- Edge of Eag Dubh on the way to Tom n G
- Steep decent from Sgurr Mhor
- Summit Tom nan Gruagaich
- Out of the clag at last.