As spring beckoned, there was just time for one
more full-on winter foray on to the high tops.
Dave needed a ‘winter fix’ and Lochaber duly delivered with 2 classic
winter days: great winter ridge walking on the western Mamores and coping with
a white-out on the Aonachs.
Stob Ban & Mullach nan Coirean
These 2 mountains, the westernmost peaks of the
Mamore range, couldn’t be more different. Like most Stob Bans, this one
is a steep-sided conical peak, largely composed of grey quartzite, whose NE
face is a shattered line of vertiginous cliffs. The Mullach is a flat
dome of pink granite protected on its N side by 2 huge sweeping corries.
The 2 peaks are connected by a classic Highland ridge that twists and turns for
3½Km above the SE corner of
Glen Nevis.
Coire
a' Mhusgain & Glen Nevis
We set off from Achriabhach and left the road at
the Lower Falls on the Water of Nevis. A good stalker’s path follows the
E side of the Allt Coire a’ Mhusgain and we took this all the way up the glen, crossing
the snowline at 700m where crampons were donned to get us on to the skyline
safely.
The snow-filled corries of the N & E slopes
of the Mamore’s ridge contrasted markedly with the wind-scoured S & W
slopes. As we ascended the
ever-steepening ridge to Stob Ban, we literally found ourselves with one foot
on rock and the other on icy snow. The
summit cairn was buried in snow and a nasty cornice kept us away from the E
fringe. Stob Ban (999m; white peak).
We needed the crampons again to negotiate the steep
icy slopes of the mountain’s N aspect and get us down to the flatter slopes of
the main Mamore ridge. An hour’s easy walking took us around the impressive
fringe of Choire Dheirg and up on to the flat granite summit of Mullach nan
Coirean (939m; summit of the corries).
We descended the Mullach’s NE ridge, slowly at
first on tricky snow patches, before the slope eased and the snow disappeared,
both at the same time. We followed the fence line down into Coire
Riabhach before crossing the forest boundary via the new stile and taking the
equally new path down through the partly felled plantation and back to
Achriabhach.
Aonach
Mor & Aonach Beag
The following day, we took the gondola and
chairlift up to 870m and walked up on to the plateau of Aonach Mor in what
quickly became white-out conditions.
This proved to be strangely helpful to an hour’s micro-nav practice
which took us carefully - by compass bearing and pacing - along the relatively
narrow summit plateau to the diminutive summit cairn of Aonach Mor (1221m; big ridge).
With little change in the conditions, we struck
out from the ice-encrusted cairn and headed S in search of our 2nd
Munro. Fifteen minutes of careful
compass work brought us successfully to the narrow neck that separates the 2
mountains.
Once here, the N cliffs of
Aonach Beag loomed out of the whiteness and seemed to tower above us like an
alpine giant. In reality of course, it
was a relatively modest 150m climb up mixed ground on to the summit snow dome
of Aonach Mor (1234m; little ridge).
The Cliffs of Coire an Lochain
Seeing nothing (not even the buried cairn), except
for the dangerously faint outline of a nearby cornice, we returned the same
way, back over Aonach Mor and suddenly out into clear, bright skies and some
welcome afternoon sunshine!
Looking North Towards Aonach an Nid
We traversed N to the top of the Warrens ski run
which we then paralleled down to the gondola station and a most welcome rapid
descent back into the world!
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