North Glen Shiel and the Five Sisters of Kintail, 10th July 2017
With the cancellation of my expected Scout Camping Trip, I found myself with a few days to take off in the leave calendar, and when better to explore the hills of Scotland in the middle of summer when the weather is at it's finest, and the midges have their teeth sharpened and ready for you!
The plan this time round was to help out Steg catch a few of the ones he's not done midway up the country. Initially, it looked like Toezi wasn't going to make it, but with a bit of advance planning, we all headed off separately on Monday morning to rendevous at the Kingy for 8:30am.
As I drove in, I was expecting to see Toezi in his big car, but it seemed like the wife was making use of the extra legroom today, so I chuckled to myself as I drove up and saw a 6ft+ chap at the wheel of 3ft- motor. We waited for Steg, then reiterated the plan to ourselves and headed for Cluanie.
The plan was to climb the 6 Munros on the North Side of Glen Shiel, which included the ridge of the Five Sisters of Kintail.
We drove up to the far end of Glen Shiel, and deposited Steg's car in the car park near the petrol station. "You got yer key wi ye?" I asked Steg as we left the car. "Aye aye" came the response.
Next step was to all jump in the wee Mazda and get parked a couple of miles west of Cluanie, to start the assault. With all the driving and faffing, it was 11:30am by the time we got on the hill, but that was ok, we were an hour behind schedule or so, and we have light till after 10pm.
We made our way up the first Munro, Aonach Meadhoin, up some fairly steep bits and over a wee waterfall which I was accused of being far too safe on and then found ourselves, rather sweaty on the summit just after 1pm. It was fairly warm and there was a very light breeze, enough to keep the midgies off.
We headed west, and over some really impressive ridge scrambling, with stunning big drops either side.
We could now see the rest of our day ahead of us, and it was big!
There wasn't even talk about bailing out despite the time, we could see that and we knew we wanted it!
As we headed over the low bealach, at 725m, we began the ascent. There were a lot more boulder fields than we expected, and as we looked back up the glen, we could see the rain coming in:
Pretty soon it was waterproofs on and by the time we were on the summit of Sgurr Na Ciste Duibhe, it was full on rain.
We reached the summit of Munro Number 4 some time after 5pm - I'm not sure exactly.
Next step was over to our fifth of the day, Sgurr Na Carnach. The climbs were becoming more and more tiring by this point, but we were still enjoying being out despite the rain.
We made the summit at 6pm and figured we only had one big climb left, so we stopped for a bite to eat, to get the energy levels up, and headed north this time to the biggest of the day, Sgurr Fhuran.
It was a real trudge up on wet rock, and visibility was really starting to drop now, so it did feel like it was going on a bit. However, we made the top eventually and had finished all the hard climbing at 6:45pm.
Congratulations were dished out, and we worked out what our best way down would be, using the bridge marked on the map to cross the river and get onto the road.
We headed along the rest of the ridge, a little more climbing over Sgurr nan Saighead and around Beinn Bhuidhe but not before meeting a girl who was climbing the same as us and had run out of water, as had we.
The weather was really starting to add to the atmosphere and these cliffs looked quite incredible.
We finally found a stream and had a long drink - the first time we'd dropped below 700m since about midday.
We headed for the flat area north east of the little Loch Shiel and started the hard descent in a line towards the bridge. The bracken was high, the slope was really steep and our legs were tired. We were all starting to get grumpy and it was around 8:30pm, so it had been a long day already.
We made it to the flat area near the loch which turned out to be fairly swampy and wet. We approached the bridge in the gloom and then saw the sign "DANGER: DO NOT USE". It was well boarded up and the old cables looked like they could go, as well as a load of the slats missing, so we decided to give it a miss.
Disheartened, we plotted an alternative route along the side of the little loch and we should pop out 1km later where it meets the road. It all panned out as expected and we arrived back at the car at 9:30pm.
But our story doesn't end there! Steg realised as he looked for his car key that it was left in my car, 12 miles up the Glen. Fortunately, despite the exhaustion, Toezi and I are a patient and resourceful pair, so I headed out onto the A87 with rucksack on and waited for a hitch. No hitch came.....It got to 10:15pm and still no hitch.....so I went back and suggested that the boys start knocking on some cottage doors before people head to bed.
I got shouted over from my thumbing position and we had managed to get a lift from a lovely lady called Alison. Phew! So I got back to the car, just before 11pm and then drove back down the road with Steg's key.
As I arrived, I noticed the girl from the hill earlier just finishing her walk. She was in a similar predicament, with a car at Cluanie Inn, so I offered her a lift as we headed out of the Glen.
We got to Glencoe, then Paul headed down the road, and Steg and I headed for the hut in Glen Etive. By 2:30am, we had the fire on and a dram in hand, and off to bed shortly after.
Distance: 20.9km
Duration: 10h 30mins
Ascent: 2000m
Munro Count: 138
The plan this time round was to help out Steg catch a few of the ones he's not done midway up the country. Initially, it looked like Toezi wasn't going to make it, but with a bit of advance planning, we all headed off separately on Monday morning to rendevous at the Kingy for 8:30am.
As I drove in, I was expecting to see Toezi in his big car, but it seemed like the wife was making use of the extra legroom today, so I chuckled to myself as I drove up and saw a 6ft+ chap at the wheel of 3ft- motor. We waited for Steg, then reiterated the plan to ourselves and headed for Cluanie.
The plan was to climb the 6 Munros on the North Side of Glen Shiel, which included the ridge of the Five Sisters of Kintail.
We drove up to the far end of Glen Shiel, and deposited Steg's car in the car park near the petrol station. "You got yer key wi ye?" I asked Steg as we left the car. "Aye aye" came the response.
Next step was to all jump in the wee Mazda and get parked a couple of miles west of Cluanie, to start the assault. With all the driving and faffing, it was 11:30am by the time we got on the hill, but that was ok, we were an hour behind schedule or so, and we have light till after 10pm.
We made our way up the first Munro, Aonach Meadhoin, up some fairly steep bits and over a wee waterfall which I was accused of being far too safe on and then found ourselves, rather sweaty on the summit just after 1pm. It was fairly warm and there was a very light breeze, enough to keep the midgies off.
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| Aonach Meadhoin |
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| Ridges! |
 |
| Ridge stuff |
The ridge walk was really great fun, everything was dry and warm so the rock felt great to the touch and our boots stuck nicely.
As we approached the summit of the second Munro, Sgurr a Bhealaich Dheirg we could see a lovely big cairn on the top. We arrived there at 2:05pm and made the most of the view:
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| Boys on Sgurr a Bhealaich Dheirg |
Next up was Saileag, so we trotted off west again, and we still had a few bouldery scrambles to contend with.
The views across to the South Shiel Ridge that we had climbed last year looked quite impressive:
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| View to South Shiel |
We got to Munro Number 3, Saileag at 3:05pm where we got chatting to a chap who turned out was a keeper on the Ardvorlich Estate near Lochearnhead which is an area we know well. He was doing a fair pace for an old chap, but I guess that's what a life on the hills will do for you.
At Saileag, I took some pictures of the Five Sisters, which is quite a sight.
 |
| Five Sisters of Kintail (12 vertical pictures stitched) |
There wasn't even talk about bailing out despite the time, we could see that and we knew we wanted it!
As we headed over the low bealach, at 725m, we began the ascent. There were a lot more boulder fields than we expected, and as we looked back up the glen, we could see the rain coming in:
 |
| Weather closing in |
 |
| Waterproofs on |
Next step was over to our fifth of the day, Sgurr Na Carnach. The climbs were becoming more and more tiring by this point, but we were still enjoying being out despite the rain.
We made the summit at 6pm and figured we only had one big climb left, so we stopped for a bite to eat, to get the energy levels up, and headed north this time to the biggest of the day, Sgurr Fhuran.
It was a real trudge up on wet rock, and visibility was really starting to drop now, so it did feel like it was going on a bit. However, we made the top eventually and had finished all the hard climbing at 6:45pm.
 |
| Toezi on Sgurr Fhuran |
Congratulations were dished out, and we worked out what our best way down would be, using the bridge marked on the map to cross the river and get onto the road.
We headed along the rest of the ridge, a little more climbing over Sgurr nan Saighead and around Beinn Bhuidhe but not before meeting a girl who was climbing the same as us and had run out of water, as had we.
 |
| Weather adding atmosphere |
We finally found a stream and had a long drink - the first time we'd dropped below 700m since about midday.
We headed for the flat area north east of the little Loch Shiel and started the hard descent in a line towards the bridge. The bracken was high, the slope was really steep and our legs were tired. We were all starting to get grumpy and it was around 8:30pm, so it had been a long day already.
We made it to the flat area near the loch which turned out to be fairly swampy and wet. We approached the bridge in the gloom and then saw the sign "DANGER: DO NOT USE". It was well boarded up and the old cables looked like they could go, as well as a load of the slats missing, so we decided to give it a miss.
Disheartened, we plotted an alternative route along the side of the little loch and we should pop out 1km later where it meets the road. It all panned out as expected and we arrived back at the car at 9:30pm.
But our story doesn't end there! Steg realised as he looked for his car key that it was left in my car, 12 miles up the Glen. Fortunately, despite the exhaustion, Toezi and I are a patient and resourceful pair, so I headed out onto the A87 with rucksack on and waited for a hitch. No hitch came.....It got to 10:15pm and still no hitch.....so I went back and suggested that the boys start knocking on some cottage doors before people head to bed.
I got shouted over from my thumbing position and we had managed to get a lift from a lovely lady called Alison. Phew! So I got back to the car, just before 11pm and then drove back down the road with Steg's key.
As I arrived, I noticed the girl from the hill earlier just finishing her walk. She was in a similar predicament, with a car at Cluanie Inn, so I offered her a lift as we headed out of the Glen.
We got to Glencoe, then Paul headed down the road, and Steg and I headed for the hut in Glen Etive. By 2:30am, we had the fire on and a dram in hand, and off to bed shortly after.
Distance: 20.9km
Duration: 10h 30mins
Ascent: 2000m
Munro Count: 138
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