16th – 18th May 2014
This was a great trip to a part of the country I haven’t spent much time in. Consequently looking at the map was like opening a chocolate box. All fingers dived in and it turned out we all picked the same alpine praline.
Heeding the weather forecast we set off bright and early on Saturday morning to Achnaschellach station and started the day with a brisk forest walk (midges are out) and a hairy river crossing. A scrambly hike up Leth Chreag with the backdrop of the vertical cliffs of Sgurr Mhuilinn led us up to our first destination of Fuar Tholl, Greg’s Corbett of the day. Lots of vertigo inducing photo opportunities on the way as the sun slowly brightened and had us half-believing that the forecast might be just a bit pessimistic.
From the shelter of the hollowed out cairn at the top we could see the Torridon peaks clearly behind Beinn Liath Mhor on the other side of the broad glen – presenting an enticing return route. However the front from the west was fast approaching and we launched ourselves down the rocky slopes to the bealach before heading up to the now misty top of Sgorr Ruadh, a munro for Howard, Paulina and myself to tick off. Emerging from the mist at the head of the path down was some impressive evidence of glaciation – extensive slabs of scarred rock all shiny in the rain and littered with erratics. Down and down we traipsed in the pouring rain dreaming of hot tea and goodies back at the hut.
Warmed by Howard’s chicken curry we relaxed by the open fire, gorged on Andrew’s trifle and made provisional plans for Sunday. The weather led us east and we met up over a mountain of cake in Aviemore to look at Drumochter routes. However, once again beaten back by the weather we went our separate ways with Suchi, Andrew and myself opting for a 7.5km run along the Tay through clouds of bluebells at Dunkeld.
