Stob Coire Sgriodain and Chno Dearg, 11th February 2017
I left work on Friday afternoon and headed over to pick up wee Jim, before heading for Paisley to pick up Max and Paul. There was some worry over whether we would fit 2 lanky lads, a joiner, a developer and full winter hillwalking kit in the Mazda 2, but we managed by removing the parcel shelf and dumping my wee tent at Pauls.
We left at 6pm and had a good catch up on the way up the road. We nipped into Tyndrum for some chips and remarked how busy it was, but then remembered it was a school holiday. Fair enough. The next leg was incredible - the moon was extremely bright - a snow moon apparently - and we could see why. All around us as we drove through Glencoe, we could see all the mountains in the moonlight, moon shadows and all. Quite the experience, and it was a shame I was driving. We wanted to get there in good time, so we only stopped once to try and take a photo.
We made it to the Stronlossit just after 9, which gave us time to settle into the room and arrange an early breakfast, then more catching up over a beer and a dram, before a reasonably early bed.
The next morning Jim and I were up super-early (Jim hadn't slept much - the hotel room was freezing) and down for a fantastic breakfast. We had our bill paid and were on the road to Fersit for 8:30am.
There were quite a few cars, poorly parked in the wee car park at Fersit, but there was enough room for the wee Mazda to slot in nicely.
We got ready, undertook the inevitable faffs and were on the track for 9am on the button.
We did ok on the climb up, it wasn't too cold initially, but once we got the wind on us the temperature dropped rapidly. As we climbed, we got towards the snowline.
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| Boys on the climb |
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| Views across the glen |
It only got windier and colder as we climbed to the summit of Stob Coire Sgriodain, but we made it eventually at 12:20pm. It was time for a special task - I had decided to ask Toezi to be my best man. So I presented him with a small miniature of Jura and he agreed, as you'll be able to see in the video at the bottom.
We didn't hang about too long because of the cold and wind, so we pressed on and found a spot a wee bit further down with some shelter to have lunch.
We headed for the col and the clouds started to clear slowly.
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| Clouds clearing and Glen Roy |
The snow line was very visible and the air was clear in between the showers. We even got a sunny spell or two.
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| Wee Jim |
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| The new best man |
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| Max |
The views in all directions were tremendous - here is the view looking over to Nevis, with the spindrift whipping up around us:
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| Nevis obscured |
We pressed on slowly up the slope towards the summit of Chno Dearg. It was only 150m or so of ascent, but the snow made for hard work, and it was too fresh for crampons to be needed.
We hit the summit of Chno Dearg at 2:20pm and we were back in cloud again.
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| Summit of Chno Dearg |
After a short break we took a bearing in our low visibility and headed on it, and that brought us out of the clouds just where we expected to be.
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| Descent |
The slope was long and when we could see Fersit, it always seemed to be miles away. Not to mention that the snow was covering all the holes and drops in the landscape. At one point I turned around and Jim had disappeared up to his waist. I dropped a foot into a river as well and felt the unpleasant sensation of cold water seeping in under my gaiter....
On top of that we had some weather coming in - a few snow showers hit us on the descent, but they weren't too wet.
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| Snow showers coming in |
We made it back to the houses at 4:20pm and were back at the car for 4:30pm. Then it was the long drive home, while listening to the rugby and hearing the tales of cramp from the back seat.
A great day out and this takes my total to 127 Munros now.
Here's the video of the day shot on my wee Go Pro:
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