Tuesday 28 June 2016

"The Glenfinnan Munro's"

The title is a bit of a giveaway of today's (Monday 20th June) hills. But first a word about staying at the Glen Nevis SYHA. In short, give it a miss at this time of year. It was infested with the dreaded 3peakers! :-(, noisy barstewards. Getting out of their pits at 5am without a thought for anyone else. Still we'll not let them spoil the fun.....on with the day.

Having parked at the bottom of the glen, you soon reach and pass under the Glenfinnan Viaduct made by "Concrete Bob" McAlpine.

The River Finnan tumbles along beside the metalled road.

A short distance beyond Corryhully the stalkers path starts to climb the foot of the long Southern ridge towards the summit of Sgurr nan Coireachan. Surpisingly the path was not at all badly worn.

Fortunately I'd had the foresight to use a wheelbarrow to get my backpack to such dizzy heights...:-)

For much of the walk it had been raining.....hard, indeed I'd been wearing Buff Mitts to keep my hands warm. However at this point just beyond Sgurr a Choire Riabhaichan there was a brief clearance. The final climb was seen ahead.

The summit of Sgurr nan Choireachan, the rain had stopped so sheltering behind the cairn I scoffed some food whilst I had the chance.

The ridge has several "puds" on it, there is a path and a line of old fence posts to follow. So in that respect a good walk for the conditions.

The clearance allowed me to see almost the full length of Glen Finnan.... 

...and much of my onward route to Sgurr Thulim.

Sadly the rain and low cloud returned and once more there was no view from the summit of Sgurr Thulim. 

It was a steep descent to the valley via Druim Coire a Bheithe, at least it had stopped raining!

Back past Corryhully bothy, I called in to find all neat and tidy. Then it was just a case of strolling back down the private road to the car.
I was contented to know that the Munro bagging was underway...no summit views tho.

6 comments:

  1. A good day.
    Phil & I tried Sgurr nan Choireachan on the Challenge a few years back. It didn't end well - Hurricane force winds on top with hail forced a badly thought out retreat. The stuff of nightmares.
    *sigh*
    Another year, perhaps.

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    1. It was a good day Alan, It's got all the characteristics of the "Rough Bounds" just to the North. A retreat means you can always go back another day!

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  2. Great stuff. Brought back good memories of my walk up there.

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    1. Hope you had better visibility than me Alan. I'll be more than happy to go back on a clear day.

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  3. (I'm catching up with a year's worth of blogs!). I often wonder at the men [most probably men] who took the trouble to put fences over the top of huge hills like the ones in your photos. And what changed, over the years, to make it no longer worth their while?

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    1. Cheap labour and landowners who were keen to show others hw much land they really had?

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