Stob Ban
The last trip of the winter season proved to
be an eventful and challenging few days.
It certainly squeezed some more use out of the ice axe and crampons –
and less than 3 weeks from May too! Peter
had originally asked for some summer mountain leader training below the
snowline, but we ended up – inevitably – well above it most of the time in
anything other than summer conditions!
The Eastern Mamores From Stob Ban
Stob Ban & Mullach nan Coirean
These 2 mountains, the westernmost peaks of
the Mamore chain, 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 & Lower 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 to the skyline, pausing only to allow Peter to
refresh his ML ropework skills. We
crossed the snowline soon after climbing the zig-zags that lead to the upper
corrie and encountered ice patches soon after which precipitated the donning of
crampons.
Stob Ban
A cold breeze greeted our arrival on the ridge
crest but great views south to Glen Coe and beyond cushioned the blow. Soft snow on the crest allowed us to remove
our crampons but failed to slow our steady progress up the ever-steepening
climb to the fine airy summit of Stob Ban (999m;
white peak). Here, the return of ice
and steep slopes on the mountain’s northerly aspect saw the crampons out again
until flatter ground was reached. This
part of the ridge had seen plenty of sun and the snow became more broken and
patchy until we reached the grassy domed summit of Mullach nan Coirean (939m; summit of the corries).
Mullach nan Coirean
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.
The Glen Coe Hills From Mullach nan Coirean
The Ring of Steall
The Devil's Ridge
This classic mountain round of 4 Munros and
another 4 intervening tops is a much more demanding day and involves a lot more
up-and-down between peaks. It is not for
the faint-hearted and today we had full-on wintery conditions to add to the
mix! It is probably best tackled in a
clockwise direction. This positions a
potentially difficult burn crossing below the Steall waterfall early in the day
and avoids the long punishing climb up the unbroken slopes of Sgurr a’ Mhaim
which you can well do without just after breakfast!
Peter on the Steall Bridge
We parked at the end of Glen Nevis and walked
through the Nevis gorge strangely devoid of the roaring meltwater usually
encountered at this time of year. Evidence
of winter beginning to release its icy grip on the mountains was apparent from Steall
waterfall beginning to melt. It had been
frozen solid on my previous visit 2 weeks earlier. The wire bridge gave Peter no problem and we
were soon across the outflow of the waterfall and climbing up into the grassy
corrie below An Gearanach’s northern flank.
An Gearanach & Stob Coire a' Chairn
The grass increasingly gave way to snow above
700m and we donned crampons once established on the ridge. They were to stay on for much of the day. The huge bulk of Sgurr a’ Mhaim across the
wide expanse of Coire a’ Mhail seemed a long way away (it was!) as we crested
the summit ridge and came to the half-buried cairn atop An Gearanach (982m; the complainer).
An Gearanach & An Garbhanach
What should have been an entertaining airy
scramble along the narrow ridge to An Garbhanach became a challenging alpine
traverse in full-on winter conditions. Much
concentration was required as we picked our way across the ice-encrusted
boulders of the delicate ridge and descended the steep southern
An Garbhanach & Stob Coire a' Chairn
The going was easier now – for a while anyway
– over gentler snow slopes along a broad ridge and over a minor top. Things soon got difficult again though with a
steep climb up exposed icy slopes that demanded great care and attention before
we attained the hardest summit of the day: Am Bodach (1032m; the old man).
Am Bodach From the Devil's Ridge
Our reward was 30 mins of easy ridge walking
before a much more straightforward climb up to the flat top of Sgurr an Iubhair
(1001m; peak of the yew), a former
Munro demoted in the 1997 revision. Then began our final challenge of this long
tiring day – a winter traverse of the Devil’s Ridge. This sharp, at times knife-edge, arête strikes
out northwards from the main Mamore ridge and connects the latter with the
dominating peak of the round: Sgurr a’ Mhaim.
The Devil's Ridge
Taking a quick compass bearing (the only one
of the day) to locate the start of the ridge in near white-out conditions, we
descended what proved to be our last steep ice slope of the day and picked up the sought-after bealach. The cloud lifted just in time to ensure wide,
if murky, views left and right across the entire Mamore range. Ahead, rose the ever-narrowing ridge that led
us over the intermediate top of Stob Choire a’ Mhail and along to two tricky
steps that proved to be even more awkward in the wintery conditions. Safely across, a straightforward climb led us
to the fine quartzite summit of Sgurr a’ Mhaim (1099m; peak of the large rounded hill).
Sgurr a' Mhaim
All that remained was the long, long descent down
the mountain’s NW ridge back to Glen Nevis.
The crampons came off (at last) half-way down and the snow eventually
disappeared soon after. One final
surprise lay in wait when we encountered scorched earth over much of the lower
slopes – something we had not noticed the previous day whilst walking up the
glen to Stob Ban. It later transpired
that persons unknown had indeed started a fire in the glen that had soon spread
over the tinder-dry slopes. Had the fire
been started 24hrs later, we could only ponder how interesting it would have
made our descent of Sgurr a’ Mhaim...
Ben Nevis From Sgurr a' Mhaim
We did find some time for that mountain
leader training in and around the 2 big hill days. Fortunately, Peter didn’t seem to need much
of it which was just as well. Nothing
else we did was going to compare with our days on the high tops and that last determined
tussle with the long, long winter of 2012/13!
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