A wee bit scared at The Ring of Steall
Route: The Ring of Steall, Mamores
Munros: Am Bodach, An Gearanach, Sgurr a'Mhaim, Stob Coire a' Chairn
Date walked: 20/04/2012
Time taken: 15 hours
Distance: 16km
Ascent: 1676m
Along with 4 friends, I completed this walk on Friday and what a day it turned out to be. I had initially planned on keeping this as a summer walk but after reading the route description, looking at the photos and reading other reports, (and the fact I didnt want to miss out as my friends were doing it anyway
) I decided to join them.
We agreed to camp the night before in order to get an early start as we knew it would be a long day, we couldnt leave until later though due to work commitments.
We pass Glencoe just before10pm and there are hundreds and hundreds of deer in the fields near the road. Good start im thinking, always enjoy seeing the wild life.
We then pass under the Aonach Eagach ridge and stare in awe, next time we all agree (well nearly us all
)
We arrive at the car park at the end of the road in Glen Nevis not long before 11pm, find a suitable (well in the dark it seemed suitable) place to pitch the tent and then get the food, lovely tin of Irish stew mmm
The night sky is full of stars and looks tremendous. I look at the shadows of the mountains surrounding us, wondering how they will look in the morning. There is a total peace that you just dont get anywhere else. "I love this" im thinking.
A quick bottle of ale (to help me get a sleep obviously
) before we get the head down at 1am.
What feels like 5 minutes later and a bright light shining into my tent (cheers David :-p) ensures im awake as well, 4am..time to get up.
There are many good reports already, so I will let the photos do the talking for the rest....
Some of the group were not as fit as others and this would delay us by some time but we knew we had lots of daylight so this did not worry us too much. If anything it gave us more of a chance to take in some of the stunning views as we waited at each summit.
I dont think any of us realised how tricky the next section would be. In hindsight there was plenty of holds and with care it wasnt difficult but Anton had a wee slip which had all our hearts in our mouth and I did consider turning back. Probably the only thing that stopped me turning back was i knew it was a long slog back and I would regret it later. Im glad I carried on, the walk got easier....well until the devils ridge that is...
After some debate we all decided to tackle the devils ridge, we had plenty of daylight left and we were not sure how clever the conditions were on the ground if we cut the walk short. There is no denying it, for the most part we were all scared stiff. I was terrified!
I don't mind heights if I know i'm safe but I did not feel safe, i knew with each step the snow made it very possible to slide and I also knew with the steepness there would be no time for a recovery with my ice axe. I was clear in my mind, slip and im dead
We all took our time and crossed the devil's ridge with extreme care, with no slips so we all survived
The snow made the descent easy, well easier. We got off the hill and back to the road at 9pm and then approximately a 40 minute walk to the car park. It was a long day but really enjoyable day. Really scary at times but in the end that all added to the fun. It has not put me off ridge walks but i doubt I will be rushing out to do any in the winter when the ground is snow covered. I reckon walking with some 'less fit friends'
probably held us up approximately 4 hours in total. We stopped for a good while at each summit waiting on the group to get back together and also stopped frequently at each steep ascent.
Im well on target to have climbed 50 before the end of the year, where next?

We agreed to camp the night before in order to get an early start as we knew it would be a long day, we couldnt leave until later though due to work commitments.
We pass Glencoe just before10pm and there are hundreds and hundreds of deer in the fields near the road. Good start im thinking, always enjoy seeing the wild life.
We then pass under the Aonach Eagach ridge and stare in awe, next time we all agree (well nearly us all

We arrive at the car park at the end of the road in Glen Nevis not long before 11pm, find a suitable (well in the dark it seemed suitable) place to pitch the tent and then get the food, lovely tin of Irish stew mmm

The night sky is full of stars and looks tremendous. I look at the shadows of the mountains surrounding us, wondering how they will look in the morning. There is a total peace that you just dont get anywhere else. "I love this" im thinking.
A quick bottle of ale (to help me get a sleep obviously

What feels like 5 minutes later and a bright light shining into my tent (cheers David :-p) ensures im awake as well, 4am..time to get up.
There are many good reports already, so I will let the photos do the talking for the rest....
Some of the group were not as fit as others and this would delay us by some time but we knew we had lots of daylight so this did not worry us too much. If anything it gave us more of a chance to take in some of the stunning views as we waited at each summit.
I dont think any of us realised how tricky the next section would be. In hindsight there was plenty of holds and with care it wasnt difficult but Anton had a wee slip which had all our hearts in our mouth and I did consider turning back. Probably the only thing that stopped me turning back was i knew it was a long slog back and I would regret it later. Im glad I carried on, the walk got easier....well until the devils ridge that is...

After some debate we all decided to tackle the devils ridge, we had plenty of daylight left and we were not sure how clever the conditions were on the ground if we cut the walk short. There is no denying it, for the most part we were all scared stiff. I was terrified!


We all took our time and crossed the devil's ridge with extreme care, with no slips so we all survived

The snow made the descent easy, well easier. We got off the hill and back to the road at 9pm and then approximately a 40 minute walk to the car park. It was a long day but really enjoyable day. Really scary at times but in the end that all added to the fun. It has not put me off ridge walks but i doubt I will be rushing out to do any in the winter when the ground is snow covered. I reckon walking with some 'less fit friends'

Im well on target to have climbed 50 before the end of the year, where next?
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-
erin_niamh
- Location: Glasgow
- Occupation: Event Manager
- Interests: Walking, Hiking, Running
- Activity: Munro compleatist
- Mountain: Buachaille Etive Beag
- Place: Gairloch
- Gear: boots
- Member: Glasgow East Hillwalking Club
- Ideal day out: nice warm day, fantastic views, plenty of wild life and then an ice cold beer when done
- Ambition: climb Scotland’s mountain
- Munros: 146
- Corbetts: 16
- Grahams: 2
- Donalds: 1
- Sub 2000: 2
- Long Distance routes: West Highland Way
- Filter reports
- Trips: 3
- Distance: 40 km
- Ascent: 3496m
- Munros: 7
- Trips: 9
- Distance: 79.75 km
- Ascent: 5979m
- Munros: 3
- Corbetts: 1
- Sub2000s: 1
- Joined: Apr 03, 2011
- Last visited: Jan 08, 2021
- Total posts: 99 | Search posts