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| Sgorr nan Lochan Uaine |
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Ascent: 1134 metres
Distance: 11 kilometres
Time: 6 hours 35 minutes
Sgorr nan Lochan Uaine 873m 2hrs 41mins
Sgurr Dubh 782m 4hrs 55mins
Another perfect day, so we decided to tackle the two Corbetts in the Coulin forest from the Glen Torridon road. We knew that these hills were capped by steep rocky summits and we preferred not to tackle them in winter conditions, apart from anything else it would mean lugging up crampons and ice axes and I thought an SLR camera would be more useful on a day like this. Our walks earlier in the week had convinced us that conditions would be favourable, the snow had largely melted in the heatwave and only garlanded the northern slopes. We were less sure when we passed through Achnasheen and drove into low cloud, the Fannaichs and Fisherfield were invisible figments of our imagination.
Leaving Kinlochewe on the Loch Torridon road we emerged from the clouds and Glen Torridon was revealed in all its stupendous glory. The face of Liathach was fully made up in the winter sun with the rocks highlighted in shadow and its summit ridge outlined in snow and contrasting with the impossibly azure skies. We parked by the path that leads to the triple buttress behind Beinn Eighe and took the path crossing the river and heading for the Ling hut. It was still cool but half an hour later we were stripping down to shirts as we climbed the excellent path that heads towards Beinn Liath Mhor.
The path eventually ran out at 420 metres so we made a beeline for the summit of Sgorr nan Lohan Uaine, its pointed peak overlooking the eponymous lochans below that shimmered in the strong sunlight. The lower slopes had been recently covered by snow that had tamped the grass and heather flat, the ground was liberally littered with old red sandstone outcrops and blocks. I stopped for 15 minutes to catch up with an urgent e-mail and took the opportunity to tantalise friends confined to their workplaces by sending them a few photos. The final 50 metres of ascent was a steep haul-up shattered quartzite. We arrived at the magnificent summit with amazing views in all directions. The conditions were quite benign so we had a good half hour in the sun, it is rare at any time of the year to be able to relax like this on the summits. Today was recompense for all those wind/rain/snow lashed days when my hands were numb and my body was telling me to keep moving.
The next stage of the walk looked a bit complex as we observed the 3 kilometres of geological minefields over to Sgurr Dubh. There were dozens of small lochans dotted amongst the rock bands and a direct route was as improbable as the OS contours giving us a true picture of terrain crafted by the last ice age. The start of the descent was down the quartzite blocks on a rough path and then we followed our nose passing around rock outcrops, down snow chutes and around the lochans. They were mainly frozen and provided the scintillating foreground for more shots of the Torridon peaks to the north.
As we started the climb we were confronted by dozens of lochans nestling between the exposed sandstone pillows. We came across a stag who held his ground and provided more photo opportunities posing beneath Liathach. The final climb to Sgorr Dubh was a scramble along a quartzite ridge with massive fractured boulders before dropping to the final deep blue lochan and then finding another steep path rising to the summit peak. Despite the fact that we had been blessed with unrivalled views all day, there is something special about this summit overlooking Glen Torridon. Again we relaxed, emptied our rucksacks of any food, took photographs and then began the descent. We had taken over an hour longer than we needed to walk these hills but we had absorbed every aspect of some wonderful hills on a perfect day, it was after 4pm before we topped out.
The guidebooks had said the quickest descent was to head west towards the Ling hut, we did and had to turn a large crag to the left. There was then a steep ramp down to a wee lochan and after that, it was a series of rock bands to negotiate by slithering and sliding down the rock outcrops. It required concentration and took longer than we had anticipated to cover the 3 kilometres back to the hut and then out to the car park. We had been granted an exquisite day for the walk and on the journey back to Loch Carron we were eulogising about whether this had been the best walk ever.
Leaving Kinlochewe on the Loch Torridon road we emerged from the clouds and Glen Torridon was revealed in all its stupendous glory. The face of Liathach was fully made up in the winter sun with the rocks highlighted in shadow and its summit ridge outlined in snow and contrasting with the impossibly azure skies. We parked by the path that leads to the triple buttress behind Beinn Eighe and took the path crossing the river and heading for the Ling hut. It was still cool but half an hour later we were stripping down to shirts as we climbed the excellent path that heads towards Beinn Liath Mhor.
The path eventually ran out at 420 metres so we made a beeline for the summit of Sgorr nan Lohan Uaine, its pointed peak overlooking the eponymous lochans below that shimmered in the strong sunlight. The lower slopes had been recently covered by snow that had tamped the grass and heather flat, the ground was liberally littered with old red sandstone outcrops and blocks. I stopped for 15 minutes to catch up with an urgent e-mail and took the opportunity to tantalise friends confined to their workplaces by sending them a few photos. The final 50 metres of ascent was a steep haul-up shattered quartzite. We arrived at the magnificent summit with amazing views in all directions. The conditions were quite benign so we had a good half hour in the sun, it is rare at any time of the year to be able to relax like this on the summits. Today was recompense for all those wind/rain/snow lashed days when my hands were numb and my body was telling me to keep moving.
The next stage of the walk looked a bit complex as we observed the 3 kilometres of geological minefields over to Sgurr Dubh. There were dozens of small lochans dotted amongst the rock bands and a direct route was as improbable as the OS contours giving us a true picture of terrain crafted by the last ice age. The start of the descent was down the quartzite blocks on a rough path and then we followed our nose passing around rock outcrops, down snow chutes and around the lochans. They were mainly frozen and provided the scintillating foreground for more shots of the Torridon peaks to the north.
As we started the climb we were confronted by dozens of lochans nestling between the exposed sandstone pillows. We came across a stag who held his ground and provided more photo opportunities posing beneath Liathach. The final climb to Sgorr Dubh was a scramble along a quartzite ridge with massive fractured boulders before dropping to the final deep blue lochan and then finding another steep path rising to the summit peak. Despite the fact that we had been blessed with unrivalled views all day, there is something special about this summit overlooking Glen Torridon. Again we relaxed, emptied our rucksacks of any food, took photographs and then began the descent. We had taken over an hour longer than we needed to walk these hills but we had absorbed every aspect of some wonderful hills on a perfect day, it was after 4pm before we topped out.
The guidebooks had said the quickest descent was to head west towards the Ling hut, we did and had to turn a large crag to the left. There was then a steep ramp down to a wee lochan and after that, it was a series of rock bands to negotiate by slithering and sliding down the rock outcrops. It required concentration and took longer than we had anticipated to cover the 3 kilometres back to the hut and then out to the car park. We had been granted an exquisite day for the walk and on the journey back to Loch Carron we were eulogising about whether this had been the best walk ever.
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| Liathach from the Ling hut |
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| Liathach, King of the Scottish Mountains |
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| Beinn Eighe ridge |
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| Liathach from the slopes of Sgurr nan Lochan Uaine |
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| Liathach and Beinn Eighe from Sgurr nan Lochan Uaine |
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| Guess |
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| Summit of Sgorr nan Lochan Uaine with Liathach and Beinn Eighe behind |
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| Moruisg and Maoile Lunndaidh to the southeast |
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| Descent of Sgorr nan Lochan Uaine |
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| Not a care |
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| Liathach in Excelsis |
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| Liathach and Beinn Eighe from the Lochans on the bealach |
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| Stag holds its ground |
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| Sgurr Dubh from below the summit |
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| Beinn Eighe and Loch Claire from Sgurr Dubh |
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