An Teallach...the very mention of it is enough to send a wave of excitement and trepidation coursing through me...in equal doses. Since starting out on my Munro journey, some six years previous, it had been the mountain I had yearned to climb...each time I read or heard of other peoples trips there it raised the bar for me just another notch. It is billed as a "fabled mountain" and ranks in most walkers' top three Munro's. I had always avoided it thus far, mainly due to lack of confidence in my own abilities on serious scrambles, but also for lack of a walking partner wishing to join me in an attempt.
Step forward Angus Macleod.....
Angus was due to be in the area on a weeks walking and fishing break and had mooted the idea to me a number of weeks ago...as if I required any persuading!! My only stumbling block was my shifts at work, and how my day off was incompatible with Angus' plans...
Step forward Sandy Craik.....
Sandy was able to not only change my day off to the Tuesday, but also give me an early shift on the Monday, thus allowing me travel time to head up the night before the walk. Clearly there are favours to be repaid for this generosity...but that's for another day (hopefully a rainy horrible day that I won't mind being stuck in work instead of on a hill).
With everything seeming to be working in my favour I left Aberdeen on Monday afternoon in good spirits and full of anticipation for the challenge that lay ahead...even the grotty feeling in my chest and throat could not dampen my spirits any (I have walked feeling a lot worse than this before). As I was so excited about the potential for this walk, I had a slightly restless night on Sunday, even to the extent of dreaming that I died, a gunshot wound apparently, before waking in a tremor. Thankfully there were no snipers waiting for me on An Teallach (or not that I was aware of pre walk anyway!!).
I arrived in good time to meet Angus in Inverness, stopping for a coffee and comfort break, then off we set for Inverbroom lodge near Braemore junction. The lodge was once part of the Braemore estate and is now part of the 20,000 acre Inverbroom estate...it has 10 bedrooms, a large kitchen area, numerous drying rooms and a HUGE snooker room...a snip at only £2500 a week to rent!!
We enjoyed a peaceful drive through to the estate and, after introductions were made, headed off to Ullapool for a late tea. Angus took me to the Ceilidh place, a fantastic little eatery, where I got to watch him rip a beef burger apart to rid it of all the onions contained therein...apparently he has an allergy to onions...his side salad was also dispersed to my plate with much haste!!! Fussy eaters...what the fluff is that all about!!??
Upon completion of his butchered burger we set off in chase of a sunset over An Teallach...would we make it in time?? The simple answer is NO, we were perhaps ten minutes too late as the clouds rolled in and the evening sun was blotted out...though I did manage to get one snap of the moon high above the clouds clinging to the mountain range.
We returned to the lodge and spent an enjoyable evening of wine and music (and a pure humping at snooker for me) before drifting off to sleep with dreams of tomorrow...
The morning could not arrive quickly enough...though perhaps the lack of sleep (excited much??) through the night would be regretted later on the drive home...but the only thought filling my head at the moment was An Teallach. A shower, a re check of the rucksack (now based on the weather conditions available to me) and downstairs for a hearty cooked breakfast (cheers Linda)...before cheerios were said and off we both set on the road to An Teallach.
It may well be the A832 that takes you to Dundonnell...but locally it is known as the destitution road...and it is not hard to see why. The barren landscape at either side of the road means nothing can distract your eyes from the prize at the end of the tarmac carpet...even shrouded in cloud!! We stopped halfway along the road to snap a pic of our target, but by the time we had gotten out of the cars the cloud rolled in even lower around her and the half view was gone...though the bulk was apparent still. We continued on our merry way until reaching the car park that signified the end of the walk...where I would leave my car for now so that we didn't have to walk the last few kilometers along tarmac at the end of a (hopefully) full day on the mountain. Upon arrival we got talking to another walker who was readying himself for the day, in reverse of our route, and hoped to be on the top of Sgurr Fiona at the same time as us. We wished him luck with his day and hoped that the cloud would clear enough off the pinnacles to give him a safe traverse. Everything I required was thrown into Angus' car and off we sped to our destination, a layby near the mountain rescue building in Dundonnell. As we were getting changed we met another potential walker, arriving a few minutes after us, who chatted briefly about his plans for today. He was concerned that the weather could be changing for the worse around one o'clock...yet Angus was sure it was going to start to burn off the cloud by then...MWIS was usually reliable enough for me and it had said chances of cloud free Munro's in the area were only 30%...so that was my expectation for the day.
As this was my first time here I do not know what the usual view is from the roadside, but today it was very little...Meall Garbh being the only thing in view as we traversed the road towards the pair of bungalows, then headed up off road through the bushes, and followed the clear old path as it wound its way up the slopes. We could hear the excited mooing of sheds full of cows below us in the village...perhaps the slaughter man was a coming??? The route was not as boggy as expected, phew, and the incline at this stage seemed gentler than we had been imagining also. The views increase as height is gained on the traverse of Meall Garbh...and the first thing that strikes you is the rocky prominance of Glas Meall Mhor, beyond the Allt a Mhuillin.
Perhaps if it hadn't been so cloudy higher up then we would have seen the summit of Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill from here...but no matter for now. We continued to wind our way up the path of Meall Garbh, heading to the minor peak of Sron a Choire, the route by now becoming steeper...then DISASTER!!!
I was slightly ahead of Angus, pulling up over some rocks on the path, when I felt a sharp tear in my left calf, my leg contracted and I literally fell over where I was standing. I felt like I had been snipered, yet had heard no gunshot!! Angus rushed to me as I lay in the path clutching my lower leg, praying it was just a severe cramp. We rested for a few minutes, in the hope that stretching it would help clear the pain in my leg, then I did a terribly selfish thing...I lied to Angus and told him it felt okay to continue!!! I know why I did this, but am still in denial at the realisation that climbing the two Munro's meant more to me that day than my physical wellbeing!! I was so desperate to traverse the pinnacles at the end of the walk that I somehow convinced myself, and subsequently Angus, that all was well and carrying on was never in doubt. It never even entered my head at this stage what the consequences would/could have been if this had happened whilst on the pinnacles!!!
So off we set once more...just a tad more gingerly in my case...we had been walking an hour by now and still had a long day ahead of us. We passed some sand dunes on the way up the slopes, to our left, and joked about Donald Trump buying An Teallach as a future golf resort (the strange conversations we have on the hills, honestly). A little further on and the path would even out as we approached Sron a' Choire...then double DISASTER!!! Angus pulled up with a start behind me, clutching his thigh, and audibly wincing. He felt something go tight in his thigh and needed to rest and stretch to loosen it off...Angus has a history of hernia problems so was clearly hoping this was nothing related to that. I'm not sure if he took the same decision that I had, clearly I hadn't confessed mine (until now) so didn't expect him to confess his, but anyway he claimed that it had eased off and we could continue...
After our unscheduled short rest we headed off again...onwards and upwards...to Sron a' Choire...then around the head of Coire a Mhuillin towards the rocky climb above Glas Tholl...
There were plenty of photo opportunities on the way up here for silly poses on the edge of nothing, and dramatic shots aplenty were taken. Unfortunately theey were all taken in the misty cloud that continued to thwart our viewing opportunities of, what we were hoping would prove to be, the best mountain view in Britain!!
With no views to slow us down we continued up the steeper slopes towards Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill...keeping the sharp drops to our left...up through scree and boulders...calf screaming at me to stop every time I had to push up off a rock!!! There is no way to describe fully the level of pain I was feeling by now...and also the mentally exhausting toll this physical challenge was having on my ability to think clearly. Had I been thinking clearly then I would have conceded that today was not my day and returned down the Coire a Mhuillin, instead of foolishly believing that I could soldier on through the agony!!
Hindsight is a wonderful tool...
As the ridge narrowed beneath us we forged on to our left and forced ourselves to "at least reach this cairn" before reassessing our respective injuries. We topped out on Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill summit 1062m, the higher of todays summits by 2m, and rested wearily against the summit trig point. Jelly McBaby, the only one of the party NOT to sustain an injury today, surveyed the scene from the summit and declared that he was happy to go on and "get the next one"...brave words from one with jelly legs!!!
However, after much deliberation, and sandwich consumption, we both concurred with the assessment of our smaller squidgier friend and made for the next summit. The pain in my leg by now was excruciating, though I think I did a good job of hiding this from Angus, and every stretch was giving me problems. The other issue I was having by now was the mental drain this was having on me...I was no longer able to concentrate on the route (which we couldn't really see anyway because of the clouds) and kept losing what path was available to us. This meant that I was constantly checking my GPS, starting to doubt both myself and it at times. There was an unfortunate moment when I took us off route slightly and we veered around the lower slopes of Sgurr Fiona, rather than find the faint path up her steep corrie edge, meaning we had to scale another path than the one we had programmed into the GPS...all very confusing in the conditions and my state of worry about being able to complete the walk with my injury. I had started to apologise to Angus already for the little mistakes that were creeping in...he was a good sport about it all...but I do feel somewhat responsible for others when on the hill (possibly because it's MY thing) and I already knew in my heart that I was not going to safely manage the pinnacles (the real fear being what to do if my leg went from me or spasmed whilst on a down climb??).
The real crux came for me when I was scaling the rocky slopes of Sgurr Fiona and thought I was off course...turned back down the slopes to catch Angus and stop him from going any further...then had to return to where I was as another check of the map confirmed that I was on the right course...THIS HAD NEVER HAPPENED TO ME EVER!!!
With a final agonising return to the slopes ahead I resolved to get up there and take a proper rest at the top, refuel with juice and sandwiches, then hope that the cloud would dissipate and give us something to see (the way ahead would be nice).
We never did get that view from the summit...but we did get a pic of Jelly McBaby at the smaller than expected cairn at 1060m.
With the weather not clearing for us and confusion now reigning at two paths in sight, neither of which the GPS wanted us to take, we returned to the slopes below Sgurr Fiona. At this point we bumped into the bloke from the layby I had left my car at...he had come across the pinnacles and over Sgurr Fiona but had gotten confused in the cloud re his next move. Things then went from bad to worse...as I went slightly back up the slopes to find the bypass route around the pinnacles I heard Angus shout me back...the bloke had convinced him that we were heading in the wrong direction totally!! He was convinced that HE was heading towards Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill and that WE should be headed in the opposite direction (which would have been correct, IF he had actually been heading towards Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill and not along a completely different ridge to Sgurr Creag an Eich!!!).
As stated earlier; hindsight is a fantastic tool and it is easy to sit in judgement now, in the comfort of home, that we should not have listened so easily to a stranger, or that we should have shown more faith in a GPS that has NEVER let me down before, or that I should have realised that the route it was taking me was in fact the bypass route and NOT the pinnacles...all little things that, coupled with my injury concerns led me to panic a little more than I have ever done on ANY previous mountain trip.
The minute we started along the opposite path to the mystery man I realised we were heading back to Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill...meaning he was heading way off course...but by then my leg was in agony and I was happy at the prospect of walking flat and down slope rather than any more ascent...all I really wanted at this point was to get back to the car and write this off as an experience to learn from...not what I had hoped from my first experience of An Teallach!!
We limped back along the path, avoiding climbing Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill again, and headed down the Coir' a Mhuillin instead of the route we had followed up, to try and reduce the strain on my calf and Angus' thigh (although his seemed to have eased up through the day and was giving him a lot less bother than earlier).
We made it back to the car in 7.5 hours, which wasn't too bad considering everything, and had still managed to bag both the Munro tops at the end of it all.
Angus headed off to the lodge and I to Aberdeen...at least a three hour drive away...with the promise of returning soon to try a second time, only this time in reverse so that the pinnacles are traversed!!
On Thursday morning I managed to arrange an appointment with a physiotherapist at my local gymnasium. She confirmed the tear in my calf and informed me that it would take between four and five weeks to fully heal...meaning that I will need to cancel all the walks I had planned for the next few weeks and hope that I am somewhere near fitness for returning to skye with the Caberfeidh Munro Baggers on 22nd June...fingers crossed anyway...
