Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag, 19th October 2014

Steg had called me a few weeks back asking for some dates when we could head out on the hills. Life is pretty busy at the moment so it took a wee while before we could get something organised. This was the weekend we had chosen and we were hoping for some decent weather. Alas the weather was mince and the grandeur of Nevis to one side and the Grey Corries to the other remained largely misty for most of the day.

We had headed up on the Friday night to stay at the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel. The hostel is still pretty old fashioned, with large dorm rooms unlike the nice small rooms of 2-4 that seem to be the norm in hostels elsewhere. A fairly punctuated sleep was topped off with a £4.50 continental breakfast which largely consisted of woefully thin toast and some cheese and meat. Decent coffee though.

We left the hostel at 8am on the dot and made our way up the little winding road to the Polldubh car park, and we got ourselves ready for the walk. We started the walk up the Steall path at 8:30. The rain had been heavy during the night and the Steall glen and river were white with foam and very noisy. Unfortunately, it was still fairly dark at this point, so photos just weren't turning out too well.

As we neared the top of the path, the finest sight in Scotland came into view - the Steall waterfall. It was even more glorious than when we had seen it in July, since it had been raining so hard for so long.

The wander along the glen is lovely, even in heavy rain. Not long after we reached the Allt Coire nan Laogh, the rain stopped but the cloud still hung around the 500m mark. We ascended towards Sgurr a Bhuic, a 963m top at the end of the ridge, via a series of paths, but we strayed and eventually had to use the map and compass to get ourselves back on track. This was a steep trudge up the slopes, but once on the ridge, it was pretty easy going.

It's a long wander around the edge of the ridge and you can see nothing in the low visibility. I think this would be an excellent high-level walk on a nice day, but when do you really get that in Scotland?

As we approached the summit of Aonach Beag, we again found ourselves straying in the mist and used the map and compass to get ourselves pointed in the right direction of the summit, which we reached at 12:40.

We hung about for a quick roll and met the only 2 other folk on the hill that day, then we headed for the short trot off to Aonach Mor.

It's a nice little jaunt, and Aonach Mor has a very well defined summit. We made the top at 13:30.

After this, we had intended to drop into Coire Giubhsachan and I'd heard that this was difficult in bad weather. We found a point which we figured could have been the point at which we drop off, but realised that it was becoming very steep very quickly. We climbed back up again, not prepared to take a risk like that carried on down the way we came up.

It may have taken a bit longer, but as we dropped below the cloud (which had started to rise again by this point), we got some great views of the valley, and even a spot of sun.

As you can see, the rivers were looking great and the colours in the glen were fantastic. Add in the roaring stags and the place couldn't have been more Scottish if it tried.

We headed back into Steall glen and then down, to get some shots of the waterfalls.

As we headed out of the Glen, I felt it was time for one last photo of Steall falls, perhaps my favourite waterfall.

As we got back to the car park at 17:20, the sun decided to break through and the clouds cleared.

We headed home, tired but glad to have finally finished the 7th and 8th highest mountains in Scotland.