Early March is always a good time to visit Scotland with the lighter nights and good snow conditions so I headed to the Glen Shiel hills (Munros Completed : A’Chraileag (A’ Chralaig) (39), Mullach Fraoch-choire (40), Ciste Dubh (41)).
The Glen Shiel hills are a range of 21 easily accessible Munros either side of the A87, the road that runs W of the main A82 at Loch Ness towards the Isle of Skye. Although easily accessible this by no means they are easy in comparison to other Munros. On the contrary some of the walks are long and exposed in places. I had first set eyes on these hills several years ago during my first trip to the Isle of Skye and was captivated by this long, isolated valley that carved through a beautiful range of snow capped peaks. I made a point of returning at some point to attempt to climb them and so eventually I found myself one early morning at the end of Winter in late February driving towards the hills surrounding Cluanie Inn.
A’Chralaig & Mullach Fraoch Choire
2011/Feb/28 : I started at 08:30 and followed the track An Caorann Mor to the right of the river which is a lovely wide track with only a slight incline. This merges into a less well defined path which is slightly wet but not boggy. It was an absolutely glorious day with a high pressure system sitting over most of the Country. There was not a cloud in the sky and visibility was for miles. At the end of the track I headed E up to Coire Odhar and reached the snowline at around 500m. This was not deep and must have been from the recent snowfall a week or so ago as surprisingly it was very light and soft – almost powdery in nature. As I ascended higher you could feel the firm base of the winter snow beneath though the recent snow was welcome as it hadn’t really snowed since the large snowfalls back in Dec. I’m not convinced the route up through Coire Odhar up to the col is the best route as it appeared to me that taking the line to Stob Coire na Cralaig and following the ridge all the way around would be better, but in any case the col route was fine.
Just before the small rise to gain the ridge at the col I had a break and put on the crampons and started ascending the ridge. Mostly it was fine, the snow depth quite different in places. Sometimes it was knee deep and other times my crampons would strike a broken rock beneath. For the most part it was good if not a little exposed in places but with care not a problem – that was until I got to the pinnacles ! A little careful scrambling was required at one point, until I reached a very tricky part which stopped me in my tracks. Steep, knife-edge narrow and very exposed on one side I went one way but couldn’t see a way around and the other required some deft scrambling over rock smeared in ice and snow. Moving very carefully and slowly, scraping snow of the rocks to get good hand holds & then testing them (as some of the rocks were loose!), I gingerly moved across this 10m section. From them on, there was only one small careful section and the ridge then led to the summit, which I arrived shortly after 1pm. Back at the col the ridge broadened out slightly more to top of Stob Coire na Cralaig and from then on it was a fantastic ridge walk all the way to the Munro of A’Chralaig, arriving at 3pm. From here it’s an easy if not boring, but steep & slightly boggy descent back to the road.
Ciste Dubh
2011/Mar/01 : This Munro can also be completed with other Munros in the area by several variations but can make for a long day. I had decided on a shorter day today after a fairly good hike yesterday and decided to follow the same path in and ascend Ciste Dubh. It’s slightly marshy near the river but not too bad and the grassy ascent to make the ridge is OK, though care is required when navigating across the stream.
As I approached the ridge the cloud increased to fill the sky but fortunately remained just above the munro tops so visibility was still excellent. Again there was no wind until slightly high up where it was only slight. The ridge narrows higher up but doesn’t require scrambling, just care especially as the path still had a slight covering of old slushy wet snow that could be slippery.
On the ridge path I met two other people that were hiking up from the An Caorann Beag valley, another track that can be used to ascend. Approaching the summit the cloud broke up and more blue sky shone through as the day wore on.
A quick break at the top and I headed on down the other way. Care is needed at this point as there can be a lot more snow on this Northern side with navigation required to avoid the steeper areas and find the correct descent route to the ridge. There was a steep descent of about 50m before it flattened out onto the ridge and the way down was about 20m wide with extreme drop offs either side. Fortunately, it had a lot of snow so I took out the ice axe and very carefully zig-zagged my way down the slope to the safety of the ridge. From there it was a straighforward plod down the ridge to the river bed and across to find the path and follow the ascent route back along the track.
