Liathach. The very sound of it instils an air of excitement in your average hill walker and I had managed to arrange a meet up with Michael (and his friend Eric) to do it this week. Forecasts were checked for the best day's to go and it was looking likely to be the start of the week, rather than near the end, as a low front appeared to be approaching later in the week. I emailed Michael and told him to meet me on Tuesday in Achnasheen, then promptly emailed him back and informed him to make it Wednesday instead (when I had called the Ledgowan Lodge they had no rooms left on the Tuesday night) which was a lesson learned for me.
I had arranged to meet Michael at the car park in Achnasheen at ten on the Wednesday but made it for around quarter past nine as the traffic wasn't too bad on the way up from Peterhead. He introduced me to his work colleague, Eric, who announced that he knew me from the Caberfeidh Munro Baggers Facebook page and was friends with a number of the members as he had served in the QOH regiment. In particular he knew Angus, Mike, Frank, Paddy, Kenny, Angus and Paul whom I have met through Munro walking and am proud to call my friends.
I packed my stuff into Michael's car and left mine in the car park for collecting later in the day, then set off on the road to Kinlochewe and eventually Torridon. We arrived at the start of the walk and parked up at the south side of the road before crossing and making our way over to the path that would lead us up the east bank of the Allt an Doire Ghairbh stream.
The path was relentless and steep on the ascent but the compensation was in the fantastic views that were opening up with every step of height gained. The A896 snaked in tandem with the river Torridon through the length of the glen, from Kinlochewe to Shieldaig.
We had clear views across to Achnashellach forest and the collection of Munro's and Corbett's within it's wild bounds. A waterfall tumbled down the slopes of the Allt an Doire Ghairbh just before we turned east along the path to detour the great cleft above us and swing out on the ridge a little bit south-west of Stuc a'Choire Dhubh Bhig.
There were a couple of short sections of easy scrambling on the way up to the ridge, which helped to focus the mind back on the walk and not the views. That all changed when we reached the ridge and saw the stunning view of Beinn Eighe ahead of us, looking almost impregnable from this angle (Sail Mhor) with a thin ribbon path running beneath her slopes through Coire Dubh.
We took a moment to compose ourselves for the traverse of the ridge ahead, snapping away with cameras and hoping that the thin layer of cloud blowing across Spidean a'Choire Leith would be gone by the time we got there. Two minor tops lay between us and the first Munro summit of the day, along the ridge of Stob a'Choire Liath Mhor. The views from these tops was stunning as far north as you could hope to see, a sea of Corbett's lay in wait for an adventurous weekend with a tent, to the south Achnashellach forest looked equally inviting. Beinn Eighe was by far the most dominating peak on view and Eric seemed rather keen to find out the best way up and down her slopes.
The cloud may have been thinning out but it still lay across the summit of Spidean a'Choire Leith as we began the ascent of her steep stony slopes. As we were ascending the slight breeze blew some more cloud in behind and around us, blotting out all the views that we had just a few seconds earlier, swirling around us on the summit and sinking our hopes of a cloud free Munro. Strangely the cloud seemed to remain in abeyance to the north of us and we could see clearly out towards Baosbheinn, Beinn Eoin and Beinn Dearg (all Corbett's) lying in the Flowerdale forest between here and Loch Maree.
A sandwich was the least we deserved after our efforts thus far, a pint (shandy) would have to wait until we returned to Achnasheen in the afternoon. Jelly McBaby took his usual stance on the summit cairn of Spidean a'Choire Leith 1055m for pictures and Michael also obliged. We lingered on the summit cairn for far longer than I ever would on my own, it was just so worth it for the views that we did have. The other guys concurred with my assertion that this was already shaping up to be a great day out. Eventually we decided that we had to push on and get the rest of the ridge done, before we became too comfortable for our own good. Then the miracle we had been praying for happened, within a few steps of leaving the summit cairn the clouds ahead of us shifted and we were treated to an awe inspiring view of the ridge ahead.
Am Farasinen (the teeth) juts up in a jagged barrier to the average hill walker, almost barring access to the 2nd Munro summit of the day, except for a path that meanders around the pinnacles to the south which is seriously eroded and exposed.
Eric was just back from a week climbing in the Austrian Alps, so really he was the ideal walking partner to have along on this trip, and even he was impressed at Liathach. There had been an earlier discussion on the way up to Spidean a'Choire Leith about myself and Michael's lack of head for height, but nothing that led me to believe we wouldn't be tackling the pinnacles of Am Fasarinen when the time came...yet somehow that is exactly what happened.
One minute we were following the path towards the first pinnacle and then suddenly we were traversing around it instead. I foolishly thought we were still about to start heading up to tackle them, via a different route from my map, but there appeared to be no way up, and then before we knew it we were round the other side of them. I asked Eric if he had intended to avoid taking us over the pinnacles and he told me that he had just followed the path and didn't realise there was another one.
At the other side of the bealach between Am Fasarinen and Mullach an Rathain I pointed out the summit path over the pinnacles, which suddenly appeared quite obvious. He did offer to reverse our route but as we still had a summit to reach and our legs were already feeling the strain we declined on this occasion...but it means we have an excuse to come back and do Liathach again.
The ridge now follows a wider plateau up to Mullach an Rathain, although only on the south side as the north face falls away steeply for hundreds of metres less than a foot from the path. The remainder of the ascent was in complete contrast to the earlier part of the trek, wide grassy plateau as opposed to boulders and scree.
We pulled up onto the summit 1023m of Mullach an Rathain to be met with even more splendid views than anything thus far. We could literally see for miles in every direction, to the south-east into Applecross, to the north-west Beinn Alligin, to the north the Flowerdale peaks, to the north-east Beinn Eighe and to the south and south-east Achnashellach forest. The only thing we couldn't see from here was an obvious path off back to the road!
There were the obligatory pictures at the summit and then we started heading west looking for the descent path, and there it was a couple of hundred metres from the summit cutting south and heading down the steepest scree path EVER into Toll Ban. We set off down the slope like downhill skiers, slaloming from side to side to slow our descent to a manageable speed. After a couple of hundred metres we bottomed out in the corrie and from there followed the path alongside the Allt an Tuill Bhain until it wound away from the stream as it made it's way through the steep sided sandstone terraces.
Eventually we strode across the last obstacle before the road, a deer fence, and then walked the last two kilometres back to where the car was waiting for us at Glen cottage.
We drove back to Achnasheen, stopping to give a lift to two hitchhikers on the way, and enjoyed that refreshing pint back at Ledgowan Lodge before Michael and Eric headed back to Inverness and left me to settle into the bunkhouse for the night as I planned another Munro raid on Thursday, though nothing that could possibly match today's...
Wow! Some fantastic photos :) One of my favourite mountains and one that I've photographed several times. It was great to read your report and also see the other side of the mountain. Glad you had such good weather!
ReplyDeleteSusieThePensioner