Our plans to do the Cuillin Ridge had fallen away due to work commitments and not really being able to get the time off, so Toezi and I planned an epic, but shorter expedition to the South Shiel Ridge.
Toezi picked me up after work on the Friday evening and we loaded the road bikes and rucksacks onto his big motor and headed North. We stopped for a black pudding supper at Tyndrum and then nipped in to meet up with Shig and wee Jim at the Bridge of Orchy. Shig was on the West Highland Way and Jim had joined him for a couple of days. As it got dark, the weather started to become quite grim, and we called the Cluanie Inn to see if they had any rooms free, but alas, we were resigned to our tent for the night.
When we got to Cluanie, we put the tent up, nipped into the bar and made it for last orders. We had a chat with a few other walking types about our options (we had a poor weather plan).
After shutting time, we headed back to the tin tent for a back seat beer.
Back seat beer in the tin tent
Then it was off to bed. We had an early start, 6:10am, so we got up, had a brew and some of Toezi's home-made Granola, then took the tent down and decided we would go ahead with the South Shiel Ridge. It was still and damp, so the midgies were, as you would expect, quite horrendous.
Bikes in the early morning gloaming
We planked our rucksacks and boots at the picnic tables outside of the Cluanie Inn and drove down the road to where we expected to end our hike. Next step was the 5 mile uphill cycle back to Cluanie. We had heard bad things about this from Steg, so we wanted to make sure that we did it before our hike. In the end it only took us about 20 minutes and on the road bikes it was an absolute breeze.
Ready to start the walk at Cluanie
We chained up the bikes, and got our boots and rucksacks on and were ready to start the hike proper just before 8am. The rain had stopped briefly and we were feeling pretty good about the hike ahead.
No sooner had we started than the rain came on, so about 20 minutes into our walk, it was full waterproofs. The first few km's were on Land Rover track, and then we headed off onto hill proper for the first big climb of the day.
We made the summit of Creag a' Mhaim at 10:15am, and the low visibility started to clear a bit. The rain even went off for a short spell.
Summit of Creag a' Mhaim
View along the ridge to Druim Shionnach
We wandered along the ridge, not losing too much height, and made the top of Munro number 2, Druim Shionnach at 10:45am, pretty good work for a morning!
More stunning views round every corner
Toezi on the ridge
The next part was fairly undulating. We didn't really know it, but we were doing a lot of climbing, all of it adding to the 2000m of ascent we did that day.
Aonach Air Chrith was the third Munro and we made the summit of that at 11:45am. That was the highest point of the day. The next part was the hairy part though. The ridge narrows a lot and there is a little bit of scrambling to get up and down various bits. It took quite a bit longer than we had thought to do that.
Hairy bit of the ridge
Steep drops
Unfortunately, the rain was battering us quite a bit so the camera was firmly away getting damp in my camera bag.
We made the summit of number 4, Maol Chinn-dearg at 12:40pm and stopped for a wee bit to eat to get some more energy for the rest of the day.
We set off again and met some folk coming up in what we thought was a weird direction. After a while we noticed that the landscape was losing more height than we thought and we realised we had wandered off the wrong path. It only cost us about 20 minutes, 150m reascent and a red face when we met the folk again, but at least we picked it up quickly.
Back on track, we headed over to Munro number 5 and made it to the summit of Sgurr an Doire Leathan at 2:15pm. We were back in mist again, so not much for the camera to work with.
After Munro number 5, we had a bit of a drama - Toezi's faithful Scarpas finally gave up the ghost and the sole came off.
Scarpa sole drama
Now, oddly enough, this is not the first time that this has happened to me. A couple of years back, the same thing happened to one of my Scouts on Ben Lomond. That day, we were lucky enough to meet the Lomond Mountain Rescue on the hill who carried some gaffer tape. The day after that incident, I went out and bought a roll to keep in my rucksack, and it finally paid off that day! We were able to secure the sole and press on.
Sgurr an Lochain
Mist revealing some views
The 6th Munro of the day was Sgurr an Lochain. We were starting to tire now, but we were still keeping a decent pace up. We made the summit there at 3:10pm and the mist was starting to lift a bit, making everything brighter, and opening the views occasionally.
The leg to the final Munro skirted mercifully round the side of a little rise, removing another 100m of ascent.
Final ascent to Creag Nan Damh
The final ascent was noticeably slower than the rest, and I think most of that is in the mind, rather than the legs, but we did it. All 7 Munros were complete and it was time to enjoy the scenery before the descent back to the A87.
Stunning Views
View from the South Shiel Ridge
The hike back down was slow and involved a fence crossing, sweating, swearing, midges and wet feet, so it's probably best if we skip over that.
We arrived back at the car at 6pm, got out of some wet clothes and headed back to Cluanie in the car to pick up the bikes.
We then headed for Fort William for a McDonalds, and then off to the Kingy to meet up again with Jim and Shig who had been in the lounge for a few hours before us.....
Here's a little video I compiled from my GoPro footage of the day:
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