One of the interesting things about my new job is the fact that I get St Andrew's Day off. This in itself is fair enough since it's a Scottish public holiday, but it seems to be accepted that people don't take it off. So I had the advantage of a day off, and also a very fitting day to be in the Scottish hills.
I headed up to The Stronlossit Inn at Roybridge straight after work on Tuesday night, and settled myself into the cosy hotel room for the night. Normally, I'd be tenting it or in a hostel, but it's dark all the time in November and the offer of a cosy bed and a hotel breakfast was too good to pass up.
I was up at 7ish, and down for a huge cooked breakfast at the late starting time of 8am. Then I drove off to Fersit. From the couple of cars I met on the road I really get the impression that the people of Fersit really dislike hillwalkers....
I was on my way up the road on the east side of Loch Trieg by 9am, and it was just about fully light.
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| Morning all! |
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| Loch Trieg, looking quite low. |
I wandered up the track until the point where the road branches off and heads up the hill, past an old sheep pen and up towards the concrete pillar, marked "Pillar (Hydro)" on the map. I've never seen one of these before and I'm really not sure what they are for, but they are a good navigational aid.
The next step was a short scramble up Meall Cian Dearg, which look impenetrable from below but there is a path you can pick on the way up. It's only visible from above really.
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| Path up Meall Cian Dearg |
I told myself I'd deserve a wee cup of coffee from the flask, so once I got onto the plateau there, I found a sheltered spot and had said coffee and snickers at 10:45am.
The wind was quite strong on the ridge and there were just a few showers about but that was the only rainfall I encountered all day.
Not long after, I came across some Ptarmigan which didn't seem to be too scared to be around me.
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| Ptarmigan |
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| Ptarmigan |
I was now on the summit ridge approaching 900m, and the wind was a little stronger. There was more snow lying now and it was quite hard-frozen and wind-scoured too. It was patchy enough to avoid without crampons, but I got my ice axe out after a while because there were some hidden icy patches underfoot. There were a few cornices starting to form too:
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| Small cornices on Stob A Choire Mheadoin |
I reached the summit of the first Munro just before midday, meaning that was a three-hour ascent. I was calculating whether I'd make it back before dark, but I was pretty sure I would.
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| Summit of Stob a Choire Mheadhoin |
The descent from the first Munro to the second was a wee bit ropey at times. The snow patches on that side were quite a bit bigger, but the ice axe gave me the security I needed.
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| View over to Stob Coire Easain |
Stob Coire Easain is a stunner, and looks even more menacing it's early winter uniform.
The ascent involved some more snow patches, with some steps cut to help me up. I made it to the summit at 12:35pm.
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| Summit of Stob Coire Easain |
The descent was bit scary. I came across a large snow patch which was pretty hard and had a grassy mound at the end, so that gave me the opportunity to try out my self arrest technique, which was great fun.
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| View back to Stob a Choire Mheadoin |
I decided that rather than head back over the ridge and the rather risky descent of Meall Cian Dearg, that I'd drop down into the corrie, Coire Easain Beag and contour the hill. There was a little path, which worked out well and then it disappeared somewhere around the point where all the burns meet.
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| View from the Corrie |
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| Stob Coire Claurigh and Sgurr Innse |
I kept to a particular height and kept checking on a rough noth-east direction on my compass and I eventually made it back to the foot of Meall Cian Dearg, though it was slow going on the heathery slopes with snow around.
I headed east and found the Hydro pillar again, the dropped down onto the road the way I had come initially. On the way back past Loch Trieg, I met a girl and her one-eyed dog out for a walk to see the loch - the only folk I'd met all day.
I made it back to the car at 4pm, with just enough light to get me to the Fersit road end. I drove back home and was back about 7pm for a good wash and a chinese carryout.
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