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| Stob Coire Easain from Stob a' Choire Mheadhoin |
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| Snow-laced Mamores and Grey Corries |
Ascent: 1355 metres
Distance: 21 kilometres
Time: 8 hours 1 minute
m Stob a' Choire Mheadhoin 1105m 2hrs 35mins
m Stob Easain 1115m 3hrs 12mins
c Sgurr Innse 809m 5hrs 7mins
At last a glorious spring day, I had missed the chance to walk on the previous two days but this was the best day of all. Not a cloud and the air was still, crisp and cool with visibility near perfect. I had decided to make a longish day trip beyond Fort William to collect these two fine but rather inaccessible Munros and, if time permitted, to consider two nearby Corbetts. Mark as always was ready for an adventure. I left home at 7:30am and after the almost routine pleasure of a drive through Glencoe in the early morning blue skies, we headed for Spean Bridge, Roy Bridge and then along the single-track road to the scattered settlement of Fersit.
The first part of the walk is the most difficult, a two-kilometre walk to Loch Treig and then a steep rising traverse aiming for the 808-metre top from where there is a far more walker-friendly ridge. We sweated our way up in the morning sun and reached the remnants of snow just before reaching the ridge. There must be a path but as on my two previous ascents by this route, we didn't find it until on the ridge. The joys of hillwalking then opened up more with each step and it was a stroll to reach the first summit of Stob a' Choire Mheadhoin.
The first part of the walk is the most difficult, a two-kilometre walk to Loch Treig and then a steep rising traverse aiming for the 808-metre top from where there is a far more walker-friendly ridge. We sweated our way up in the morning sun and reached the remnants of snow just before reaching the ridge. There must be a path but as on my two previous ascents by this route, we didn't find it until on the ridge. The joys of hillwalking then opened up more with each step and it was a stroll to reach the first summit of Stob a' Choire Mheadhoin.
The views of the Mamore and Grey Corries were of intricate snow-laced ridges stretching endlessly. We continued across to Stob Easain, marginally the highest of the two, there is a stiff descent and ascent of 140 metres between the two. I had once camped at the col between the two hills at midnight after a late evening start from Tulloch over the Easains, before completing the Grey Corries and Ben Nevis the next day. It was late April and bitterly cold in the clear night skies. The site of our tent pitch did not even look promising on a glorious day such as this.
We lingered over lunch admiring the views and sunning ourselves in the early afternoon sunshine. We could see Ben Wyvis and the Strathfarrar hills in quite excellent visibility. The whole of the southern highlands was in view and the Ben stood like a sentinel beyond the Grey Corries. It was decision time, did we stay longer and retrace our steps or take the far longer route over the Innses. I was anxious to do the latter and for once Mark hoped I would take the shorter route.
The descent to the 551-metre bealach is aided by an obvious path, with sections of loose scree and then a meander around some hillocks before starting the south face of Sgurr Innse. It looked like a difficult ascent and it was harder still in the heat; three or four ramps separated the rock faces and we angled our way up. It had taken longer than I hoped and we knew it was a long way back to Fersit over the rough hillside. We finished our food and then debated the next step.
We knew it was well over 2 hours back to the car and we would need to add another hour and a bit to take in Creag Innse as well. For once, logic entered the fray and we headed back. The initial descent to the north was steep and then there was a couple of kilometres fighting our way through the heather until we reached the Allt Laire. We crossed the river and followed it down until we reached the forest and an old railway embankment that curved round back to Fersit. By our standards, it was not that late, about 7pm but we had a 3-hour drive back, a fact I had considered when deciding to give Creag Innse a miss. It had been a brilliant day on some very good hills. If only we had found a path up from Loch Treig up to the ridge.
We lingered over lunch admiring the views and sunning ourselves in the early afternoon sunshine. We could see Ben Wyvis and the Strathfarrar hills in quite excellent visibility. The whole of the southern highlands was in view and the Ben stood like a sentinel beyond the Grey Corries. It was decision time, did we stay longer and retrace our steps or take the far longer route over the Innses. I was anxious to do the latter and for once Mark hoped I would take the shorter route.
The descent to the 551-metre bealach is aided by an obvious path, with sections of loose scree and then a meander around some hillocks before starting the south face of Sgurr Innse. It looked like a difficult ascent and it was harder still in the heat; three or four ramps separated the rock faces and we angled our way up. It had taken longer than I hoped and we knew it was a long way back to Fersit over the rough hillside. We finished our food and then debated the next step.
We knew it was well over 2 hours back to the car and we would need to add another hour and a bit to take in Creag Innse as well. For once, logic entered the fray and we headed back. The initial descent to the north was steep and then there was a couple of kilometres fighting our way through the heather until we reached the Allt Laire. We crossed the river and followed it down until we reached the forest and an old railway embankment that curved round back to Fersit. By our standards, it was not that late, about 7pm but we had a 3-hour drive back, a fact I had considered when deciding to give Creag Innse a miss. It had been a brilliant day on some very good hills. If only we had found a path up from Loch Treig up to the ridge.
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| On the ascent |
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| Loch Treig |
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| Stob Coire Easain and the Mamores |
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| Arriving at Stob Easain |
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| Stob a' Choire Mheadhoin from Stob Easain |
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| Mark at ease with life on Stob Easain |
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| Sgurr Innse and Creag Innse from Stob Easain |
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| Skiing the Easain way, one pole and two boots |
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| Looking back to Stob a' Choire Mheadhoin and Stob Easain |
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