Friday 12 – Sunday 14 September 2025
The meet was surprisingly under subscribed for a good hut in a good location, and the inclement weather forecast reduced the number even further so that finally there were just 9 of us heading up to Kinlochleven on the Friday, although as I huddled under the open bonnet of Chris’s car, struggling to drag on my waterproofs, I did wonder if I would be cutting the route short to the Claichaig before many minutes had passed. Fortunately, however, the day turned out better than forecast, with short sharp downpours quickly blowing themselves out and a nice mixture of swirly cloud and clear interludes appearing, which made the view down the valley to the Aonach Eagach from my Corbett (Meall Liath) pretty stunningly atmospheric.
Higher up on the Bideans, the two Chris’s and Martim had more cloud and rain and Chris B found the going a bit slow considering the remaining hours of daylight and so headed back down where he met up with Katrina, Andrej and Julia who had had a short walk up to the lost valley followed by some adventurous outdoor swimming for the women.
We rendezvoused at the Claichaig to check that the beer hadn’t gone off since our last visit there just as the rain started to get a bit more serious, and were later joined by a soggy Martim and Chris H.
At Kinlochleven, we installed ourselves in the back part of the hut, venturing forward to the common sitting room to enjoy the coal fire tended by the visiting hut warden, where the evening arrivals Patrick and Carlin found us.
Saturday morning Team A got up early to attempt a round of the 4 easterly Mamores (Na Gruagaichean, Binnein Mor, Sgurr Eilde Mor, Binnein Beag) – the route strategically calculated by Andrej to optimise the minimum number of metres of walking and of ascent, while Team B preferred to stay in bed a bit longer and go for the first 2 Mamores only and Team C (Chris B) preferred to get the bus to Fort William. Ultimately, Katrina, Andrej and Julia managed to not only bag 4 Munros but to have views from the top and go for a swim afterwards, while team B achieved neither views nor swim but we did enjoy the lie in and the early beers.
On Sunday, Martim and myself identified that we needed just one more Munro to reach 50 and 141 respectively and luckily Patrick was amenable to driving us to Sgurr na Ulaidhi. As we ploughed up the relentless foggy slopes from the belach I reflected that there was a good reason it was the ‘forgotten Munro of Glencoe’, but fortunately the way down proved nicer although the mountain was irritatingly and obstinately cloud covered for the entirety we were on the ridge and completely clear as soon as we were half way down. Oh well….
- Report by Ruth Taylor
