The long hard week we had planned for our
Newtonmore trip turned out to be a long hard week adjusting the itinerary
because of the copious amounts of snow still lying on the Scottish mountains! Although the more easterly peaks had
relatively few patches of spring snow, those hills further west were plastered
with the white stuff and summer hillwalking was not remotely possible!
Creag Pitridh, Geal Charn & Beinn a’
Chlachair
Beinn a’ Chlachair
There’s only one
obvious access point for these 3 Munros that lie over 5Km S of the A86 mid-way
between Newtonmore and Spean Bridge.
Leaving the car at the lay-by close to Moy Lodge, we headed up the track
that traverses around the S flank of Binnein Shuas to Lochan na h-Earba. The track then becomes an excellent stalker’s
path and climbs to the skyline placing you conveniently at the centre of the
group.
Creag Pitridh & Geal Charn
Turning NW just before
the skyline bealach, we picked off the easiest of the day’s hills - the small
rounded cone of Creag Pitridh (924m;
Petrie’s rock). An easy start! Returning to the stalker’s path, a slightly
longer (but not much) detour placed us on the flat rocky summit of Geal Charn (1049m; white hill). Here, we encountered our first snow patches
of the week!
Geal Charn
Returning once more to
the stalker’s path and back to the skyline bealach, a steep, if short, climb
gave access to the long broad shoulder of our 3rd Munro. Now the cloud came down and we saw little but
a monochrome world of snow and rocks as we picked our way to the eventual
summit of Beinn a’ Chlachair (1087m; stonemason’s
hill).
Beinn a’ Chlachair
Descending E, we
traversed around the rim of Coire Mor a’ Chlachair before descending directly N
to intercept the inward stalker’s path and returning to the car in a little
over 8hrs. Whilst
we encountered only a moderate amount of snow today, we could look across to Ben
Alder and see plenty of it on that high massif.
It was obvious we would have to come back another time for the Alder
group.
Stob
Coire Sgriodain & Chno Dearg
Sron na Garbh-bheinne
Today, we opted for a more straightforward day
and Matt went off to play catch-up on another Munro as Jenn & Jon headed W to
tackle 2 of the Loch Treig hills.
Stob Coire Sgriodain
Parking at Fersit, the leafy surroundings of the
hamlet were soon replaced by the peat bog and heather slopes that guard the N
flanks of the 2 hills. A steep climb up
the nose of Sron na Garbh-bheinne gives access to the gently undulating ridge
that leads fairly easily to the rock-studded summit of Stob Coire Sgriodain (979m; peak of the corrie of the scree).
Loch Treig
Fortunately, the clouds kept away long enough
to allow us the spectacular view down to Loch Treig, immediately below us.
Chno Dearg
A straightforward traverse, with no significant
ups or downs, connects the 2 Munros and an easy climb up grassy slopes leads to
the stony, flat summit of Chno Dearg (1046m;
red hill). This was in cloud, and a
compass bearing was necessary to get the initial descent line right. But we were soon back in clear air and were
able to take a direct line down assorted snowfields that afforded rapid
progress before the wet grassy slopes led us back to Fersit.
Carn
Liath, Stob Poite Coire Ardair & Creag Meagaidh
The Creag Meagaidh Hills
We left the round of Creag Meagaidh for the best
weather of the week, or so we thought!
Alas, it was not to be and cloud, snow and rain all had a go at us as we
made our way around Coire Ardair. Oh,
and did I mention the cold wind…?
Starting from Aberarder, the new path led us
past the old farm and up into the birch woods.
Here, we left the main path and climbed NE up the heather slopes of Na
Cnapanan and on to our 1st peak of the day: Carn Liath (1006m; grey hill).
It’s usually an easy and enjoyable walk along
the wide grassy ridge on to the next Munro, but today a cold and gusty headwind
made for tough going. Eventually though,
a combination of narrowing ridgeline and old rusting fence-posts led us to the
diminutive summit cairn atop Stob Poite Coire Ardair (1053m; peak of the pot of the high corrie). This summit’s greatest feature is the close
view it gives across to the vertical
cliffs of Coire Ardair and we were fortunate to get just such a view today.
A short, steep descent leads to The Window, the
conspicuous U-shaped bealach that separates this peak from Creag Meagaidh
itself.
Climbing up the other side, we entered the cloud
and crossed the snow-line at about 1000m and our world changed! There then followed an hour’s
micro-navigation in white-out conditions as we crossed the snow-covered
plateau, gained the summit cairn and re-crossed the plateau to locate our
return ridge. Creag Meagaidh (1130m;
bogland rock).
The subsidiary top of Puist Coire Ardair leads
to the onward ridge and the eventual descent back to Aberarder. The cloud was in no hurry to leave us,
neither were the wind and rain. But Jon
did manage to spot a dotterel which brightened things up. A bit.
Drumochter
East - A’Bhuidheanach Bheag & Carn na Caim
Drumochter
As the others departed for home, Jon and I took
advantage of our 2 cars and managed an end-to-end traverse of the eastern
Drumochter hills. Cold and showery it
may have remained (snow showers at that), but it stayed largely cloud-free as
we traversed S-N heading up from the Pass and on to the flat grassy summit
of A’Bhuidheanach Bheag (936m; little yellow place). As usual, red grouse, mountain hare, dunlin
and dotterel added welcome interest.
A’Bhuidheanach Bheag
Then it was on across the windswept plateau and
along the track to the final Munro of the week: Carn na Caim (941m; hill of the curve). We returned, as usual, down the track from
the disused quarry and back to the 2nd car.
Despite the difficulties, it was a great week
and everyone went home happy. But warm
spring sunshine, where art thou…?
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