5 Munro's and an ex Munro from Cannich...

I must admit that the thought of attempting such a potentially long day in the hills on Saturday was filling me with dread. The weather had been getting progressively worse since the plans had been formulated and I was worried that everything would either fall through or be a washout. Thankfully neither fear came to fruition and everything went ahead as scheduled. I had hoped to head up to Inverness, at least, on the Friday evening so as to cut down on the travel required on saturday morning. This was impossible as Derek couldn't manage to leave until Saturday (I never asked the reason)...so off we set at half past four on Saturday morning on route to Cannich. I had arranged to meet Michael and Chris at the pub in Cannich at half past seven, so even if the traffic was poor we should still make it there in time...hopefully!! We need not have feared, as we turned off the main road at Drumnadrochit I spied a familiar car ahead of me, Michael was just in front of us. We stopped at the pub as planned, then Michael led the way out to Chisholme bridge, parking at the public car park just beyond at the end of the Loch road. A quick change and introductions all round and we were all set for the off by eight o'clock...just the small matter of a walk back along the road to the actual start point at Chisholme bridge to negotiate, then off into the wilderness of Affric. 

Prior to the start of the day I was sitting on 188 Munro's...Chris was on 59 Munro's...Michael was on  8 Munro's and Derek couldn't remember how many (he claims to not keep count). We had discussed potential routes and alternatives if things went against us, everything based on the levels of fitness of the group, not any one individual (though ideally my eyes were fixed firmly on getting five done today). The initial plod along the road was jovial enough, everyone joining in the banter and discussing hopes for the day ahead. We turned off the road at Chisholme bridge and followed the land rover track along the east side of the Abhainn Gleann nam Fiadh. This was a decent path, although became more boggy as we progressed along it, and allowed us to stretch off the weariness in our legs that only a long drive can bring.

Derek set off along the path at his usual fast starting pace, which would slow slightly as we started to rise the slopes shortly, as the others tried hard to keep up without complaint (only joking, he just moved too quickly past me as I took the picture above). As we entered the glen the views ahead began to open up, we could see the outline of Toll a' Creagach ahead and summised that the flatter rise ahead of us to the right was Beinn Eun. We passed through a deer fence in the path and the route took us away from the river for a short distance, drier ground at last, before returning to the glen floor once more and a very boggy patch of ground to follow to the foot of the slopes ahead.

 As expected, the slopes rising up the east of Beinn Eun were steep and wet...but what awesome views they were providing up the rest of the glen!! We could now see a lot of the route that lay ahead of us, including the shoulder leading from Toll Creagach onto Tom a' Choinnich...and the outline of the slopes off Sgurr na Lapaich (should we manage to venture round far enough to bag four or five today).

The slopes up Beinn Eun provided nothing more than a wet slog through boggy ground, turning into a wet slog through heathery tufts, and eventually a drier rocky rise to the wide open summit plateau. There is a decent size cairn at the top and also a trig point surrounded by a wind breaker (although as the winds picked up it became apparent that this was not going to protect us from  very much indeed). Michael and I arrived first at the top, allowing us some time to enjoy a sandwich and juice, before being joined by Derek then Chris. Derek immediately sought out the wind shelter so he could attempt to light his cigarette...ahh nothing beats the first puff on a death stick apparently!!! As Derek sat coughing up a lung, the rest of us peered out across Loch Mullardoch below and Michael pointed out the route he had taken up two of the far Munro's only recently (they were the first two solo Munro's he had done, fantastic considering he has only started hill walking this year). Jelly McBaby got his usual summit pic taken before we surveyed the route ahead. It all looked pretty straight forward to get onto Tom a' Choinnich, just traverse in a westerly direction across the plateau, drop down the broad shoulder until it narrows, then rise up the clear and obvious path on the other side (which steepens and narrows at the top) until you pull onto the summit top...let's go do it then!!

The walk between Toll Creagach and Tom a' Choinnich resembles those pictures you get of the lunar landscape, all loose rocks on an undulating surface, until you drop off the plateau and onto the broad shoulder and are faced with a steep climb on the other side. We pulled up to the summit of Tom a' Choinnich 1112m at just under 3.5 hours, which wasn't too bad going for four old fellas (okay three old ones and me). The views ahead of us immediately made up our minds for us...there was no way on earth we wouldn't be pressing ahead and completing the full round today...the sky was clear enough to believe that there would be no risk of mist to spoil the rest of the day for us and even the risk of rain seemed remote at this point. As we enjoyed the peace and solitude of being on a remote mountain summit, more juice and sandwiches, we were joined by two walkers and their dog from the other side. We had noticed them back at the start of the route but thought they had gone elsewhere when they never appeared to be following us, indeed they had merely done the route in reverse and done Tom a' Choinnich first (they were only planning on the two tops today). We were warned that the dog could be a little funny with strangers so to watch our fingers. This threat vanished as the offer of a bit of tuna and sweetcorn sandwich mellowed the dogs mood and I now had a new best friend. Jelly McBaby stayed well out of harms way though, I doubt that the dog would be able to distinguish between Jelly McBaby and normal jelly babies!!!

Michael recognised one of our new companions as a friend from school (now that WAS a long time ago) which proves what a small world we really do live in. Looking ahead to the other three Munro's gave a real feeling of remoteness to the area...it was going to be a real distance between here and Carn Eige...we weren't even sure if we could see all three of them from here (apparently we couldn't) and all the pre routes I had read had described Beinn Fhionnlaidh as being "very remote". With 3.5 hours of our day used up already on the first two summits we knew it was probably going to take us the full 12 hours we had set aside for today to allow us to complete the round. With this in mind we pressed on to our next objective...Carn Eige...all that stood between us was kilometre after kilometre of ascent and descent and re-ascending peaks, pinnacles to traverse (if the wind died by then) and a winding path around corrie edges...fantastic.

 The day thus far had been hard enough, especially on those that don't get out in the hills as often as they would wish, and looking ahead to the winding path (with no sign of the hidden Munro) we knew it was to get no easier. We continued in a westerly direction and dropped height immediately, almost 100m, before starting to climb quite a steep pathed section up to An Leth-chreag (which sits above Coire Mhic Fhearchair to the south). Having regained some height we were trying to pick out the summit of Carn Eige...and all got it wrong!! The peak of Stob Coire Dhomhnuill looked the most likely to begin with...it wasn't until we gained a little more height and distance that we realised just how far we were from the summit of Carn Eige...We knew that Eige sat on the middle of a ridge from Beinn Fhionnlaidh to Mam Sodhail, so when we saw the peaks ahead we instantly knew that this was an undertaking of quite mammoth proportion.

Despite the battering we were now getting from the wind, and very little shelter from it, we were making good progress along the various ridged paths and steep ascents. Clearly we had a good few pit stops on the way, but only to admire the fantastic views that Affric provides.

Looking back down the Gleann nam Fiadh increased the feeling of remoteness. This was exacerbated by the lack of noise from any road...normally you can hear some sort of noise in the distance but not today...not even a plane overhead!! We forged on as the wind chill dropped and we were getting a fair old buffeting from the strong breeze. Then the pinnacles we had seen from way back appeared ahead...would we be able to scale them safely...or have to avoid them because of the wind??? The easy answer to that was we avoided them...if derek isn't willing to attempt them then they are deffo not safe to go over (Derek will do anything just for the thrill of it but even he said NO straight away to scaling them today). The correct decision was made as we were even getting blown sideways on the bypass track around them, god knows how much of a battering we would have taken going over them!!!

Having come this far, Chris declared that he needed a lunch break. Apparently he hadn't eaten anything on the other summits, unlike the rest of us, and wanted to try and get some shelter out of the wind so that he could have his lunch. We walked on until we found somewhere suitable and stopped for ten minutes or so.

Chris picked out a lovely little perch to sit on for a pic, with Sgurr na Lapaich in the background, then panicked when he couldn't get back across without moving some rocks beneath his feet...oh how we laughed. We weren't too far off the summit of Carn Eige now, just a little steep bit left to ascend, and we could clearly make out Beinn Fhionnlaidh to our right. It is not that Beinn Fhionnlaidh is all that remote from the rest of the route, it's just that the entire route is remote and Beinn Fhionnlaidh feels like an extra addition that some may not wish to attempt. We pulled onto the summit cairn of Carn Eige 1183m and suddenly noticed that the weather was a changing...clouds were forming above us and rain was hitting the hills to the north-west.

 A happy little band of travellers posed at the summit cairn, before attentions were turned towards Beinn Fhionnlaidh. Chris declared very quickly that he was feeling a tug in his hamstring and didn't fancy the extra trek across to Beinn Fhionnlaidh. We discussed the implications of this to the group and all agreed that the opportunity to get out there was way too tempting to pass up. Chris was more than happy, and capable, of heading off to Mam Sodhail on his own and making it back down to the car if we failed to catch up with him. It was clearly going to take us at least an hour, if not an hour and a half, to make it out to Beinn Fhionnlaidh and back to Mam Sodhail from here, which would make it unlikely that we would see Chris again until the car park. Goodbyes were said and Chris headed down to the south to get off the summit and out towards Mam Sodhail, whilst we headed north towards Beinn Fhionnlaidh.

With a distance of merely three kilometres between the summits of Carn Eige and Beinn Fhionnlaidh we knew that the descent and ascent would be our main challenge. Half way across we decided to lighten our loads to speed things along, we didn't really want to leave Chris on his own for the rest of the trek, and so dumped my rucksack and various other items against a rock (remembered to take my car keys just in case this time) for collection on the way back. On we ploughed, following quite a clear path up the two/three rises on route to the summit cairn. The weather had changed somewhat now and angry clouds were forming above us, a few spits of rain fell as way of warning that we may not escape this as dry as we would wish. Coire Lochan, beneath us to the right, looked inviting enough to jump into, were we not so high above it Derek!!! After a couple of rises and one false summit we reached our destination Beinn Fhionnlaidh 1005m. Jelly McBaby had thankfully pledged his loyalty to the group and not headed off with Chris...so took his rightful place on the summit cairn for a very quick picture.

We decided not to hang around on this summit, as we had to try to catch up with Chris. But it was hard to resist a pic down to Loch Mullardoch below us. Apparently there is a ferry service across the loch from the other side to here, for those that don't wish to tackle Beinn Fhionnlaidh on this route. With there being four further Munro's across the water to attempt on another day, I'm glad we did it this way round and can saviour them for next year.

As we headed back towards Carn Eige Michael pointed out how silvery the Gleann a' Chiolich looked as it snaked down to meet the head of Loch Mullardoch below us.

We made the return journey as quickly as we could, though our legs were starting to feel the strain of rushing up the last Munro, stopping only to collect our belongings (thankfully still all there), before heading around, rather than back over, Carn Eige. I'm not sure if this way worked out any quicker...it's not the easiest thing in the world to walk sideways around a mountain...but I felt that we must have made decent time as we were on the summit cairn of Mam Sodhail only an hour after leaving Chris behind on Carn Eige (with an extra summit to boot). Once we picked up the track from Carn Eige to Mam Sodhail it was a simple case of hauling ass up the steep sided track to the summit cairn...although by this stage in the day our legs felt like lead!!! Arriving at the massive cairn structure on Mam Sodhail 1181m we were almost immediately blown back down the other side...the wind had picked up as we sheltered on the lea side of the mountain and was now quite brutal in it's assault on us!! Derek sheltered as best he could behind the cairn to finish his sandwich, whilst I tried my best to find a safe place to pee without risking blow back (nothing worse than finishing a Munro trek smelling of your own wee!!). Jelly McBaby had to be wedged into place to get a safe picture, before quickly climbing down and sheltering in between rocks lower down the cairn. Michael was the most at risk of being blown over, given that he is built like a twig, so spent most of the time keeping as low to the ground as he could.

The good news was that we had only taken nine hours thus far, meaning another possible three to make it back to the car if required and still being on schedule. The choice of escape routes off Mam Sodhail included a short traverse south to Ciste Dhubh then walking along the ridge to An Tudair Beag before a steep descent to the path running around Loch Affric. We thought that provided too long a return route alongside the loch back to the car at Loch Beinn a' Mheadhoin. Our choice was to trek east along the ridge to Sgurr na Lapaich, which would allow us to take in an ex Munro (demoted some years back for reasons best known to the SMC and OS). In my humble opinion Sgurr na Lapaich fulfills all the criteria I'm aware of for inclusion as a Munro, it is certainly a further distance to reach than that between Mam Sodhail and Carn Eige (it also has more descent and ascent then that between those two) yet somehow it managed to get demoted to a mere spot height of Mam Sodhail...criminal if you ask me. All the way along this final ridge we were blown about like rag dolls...not good when there is a fair old drop off below you.

From the summit of Sgurr na Lapaich we descended on an obvious path (not on the OS map) and splodged through even worse boggy ground than we had encountered nine hours previously...by the time we reached the 500m contour we were pleased to see a land rover track ahead of us. We reached the track and thanked our stars that we were out of the bogginess, then traversed it all the way back to Affric lodge, before heading along the final track back to the car, arriving a full ten and a half hours after departure this morning (the longest day I have had in the hills so far this year), and found Chris swigging the last of his hip flask as he waited for us to arrive. He had only been waiting for forty five minutes as well, so we were really pleased at the time it took us to do that extra Munro. A short drive back to Cannich and a welcome pint with Michael before he left the three of us to our digs and a hearty tea and few more beers before retiring to bed shattered!!! A great day indeed and a chance to catch up with some lads that are proving to be fine mountain companions...Derek is as mad as ever...Michael is fitter than ever (infuriating that one) and Chris is as steady and reliable as ever (that's a compliment by the way!!)...
Until next time...Torridon hopefully...

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