An Teallach, Wester Ross - August 2011

Pronunciation/Translation: An Teallach - an tyalach (the forge), Sgurr Fiona - skoor fee-ana (peak of wine), Bidein a' Ghlas Thuill - beetyan a ghas-hool (peak of the greenish-grey hollow).

(Entry by Shona)

Ullapool – 15 August 2011 to 18 August 2011

Monday 15 August

After a long morning or sorting out our gear and camping things, we start our long drive up the country towards Ullapool and the enticing mountains of An Teallach. We take a slight detour through Inverness and end up driving towards the West coast as dusk falls. Not a bad time to be driving as the mountains and surrounding hills look quite spectacular.

As we make our way along the A835, we catch our first glimpse of An Teallach. Wow. Jagged peaks rising from nearly nothing, the evening sun behind, casting them in dark shadow. We take some pictures from a distance and trundle onwards. As the road curves to the south, we are now within a mile or so of An Teallach and they feel as though they are looming above us, tempting us ever closer.

We turn off and head 7 miles along a single track road to the campsite at Badrallach.
We choose a small spot at the end of the site so that the dogs don’t disturb anyone, however we end up next to a family with 2 young children……..and I thought Bracken cried a lot!

We pitch the tent with near military precision and get our gear inside. The midges’ arent too bad but they are out there! We take the dogs down the path to the waters edge and admire the view across the water towards Dundonell. After a wee bite to eat we decide to have a whisky and get our heads down. Busy few days ahead.

Tuesday 16 August


We wake to rain and low cloud cover, so we have a lie in before we head up to Ullapool for the day. We drive leisurely along the roads and take in the scenery until we reach Ullapool. We walk round the town with the dogs and take a peek in all the wee shops. I still can’t seem to find the antlers that I want but Eric finds a nice Mammut hat.

We fill our tummies with some chips and have a drink in the terrace bar before we walk back to the car.Long drive back to Dundonnell where we head up past the other campsite at Badcaul. We both agree that the site we are on is better, even though it is a bit out of the way. Another fairly early night as we rest before our hike up to An Teallach tomorrow.

Wednesday 17 August


Up early, some noodles and hot dogs for breakfast. A hearty meal for any hiker and we pack up the car, dismantle the tent and drive round to the Corrie Hallie lay-by where we gear up, jump the stile and join the boggy path. We follow the stream on it's east side and head further up Coir' a' Ghiubhsachain onto the rocky outcrops which stretch out at the base of the An Teallach range. Little cairns mark the way as the path isn’t always clear. I can imagine how desolate it would be in winter.

As we hike further along towards Glas Mheall Liath, we plan which way we are going to head up and then we catch our first sight of Loch Toll an Lochain. Beautiful teal blue water glistens in the sunlight and we watch as two deer dart along the mountain slightly higher than we are. We are now in a mix of boulderfield and scree and we make our way up the steep side, stopping for pictures and to enjoy the surrounding views. The midges make sure we don’t stand still for long though and before we know it we have reached the summit cairn of the first of the days peaks.

From here we head south towards Bidein a' Ghlas Thuill (1062m), the first of 2 Munros on the range. We walk over what we think are slight mounds of rocks but they end suddenly and have massive drop offs. Could be very dangerous in mist or snow or just general cloud cover. After a few detours to avoid the rocky outcrops, we ascend up to the summit, We don’t see much as we are now inside a cloud.

Quick snack before we ‘glove up’ and start the descent. We drop down below the clouds and onto the ridge between Bidein a' Ghlas Thuill and Sgurr Fiona 1060m, the second Munro on the range. As we get out of the clouds, we can see along to the coast and see all the little islands. Pictures just can’t pick up the same detail. It is amazing.

We pass a few people on the ridge, who don’t say much and look pretty tired.
From this part of the ridge, we can look right down into the corrie and take in the full size of the lochan below. The whole corrie is made of steep slopes with triangular peaks and zigzags cut into the rock. It’s like the Cuillin on Skye but with more greenery!
The best corrie and lochan in Britain? I can see why. It’s breathtaking up here.

We push on and wind our way up and around the peak of Sgurr Fiona and spot a few sheep grazing, just above is shrouded in cloud. Not a sight I expected, I have to say. Eventually we find the summit cairn. Back up in the clouds again.

We drop off the north east side of Sgurr Fiona and head towards the Corrag Bhuidhe. 
From here, the path skirts the edge of the ridge with sheer cliffs which fall right down to the lochan below. We look out over Fisherfields and the surrounding mountains that stretch for miles.

As we take pictures of the huge jagged peaks of Lord Berkeley’s Seat, we see a man right at the top. Eric shouts up to him and takes his picture. But it’s hard to get the full scale of the drop into the picture.

We circle round the lower part and meet the guy and have a chat. Eric sends him the picture to his mobile. After a pleasant chat we bid each other farewell.
From here the terrain changes and we are on a very steep and narrow path with slight climbing to be done. We take our time and make sure the dogs are okay and then we catch our first glimpse of the wild mountain goats. They have the most beautiful coats and we watch as two young males tap horns right on the edge of the rocks. Hardy little blighters. They’d have to be in this place! They decide that we are too close and they skip off further up the mountain where they stand and watch us from a distance.

The last two peaks are easy climbs and we make good time on these. We decide to head off the end of Sail Liath, which is boulderfield and soggy heather. The rain has found us and we go slowly. These boulders are ankle breakers. Each stone varies between the size of a small tv and a small family car! We make it down off the boulders and are soon being attacked by the ever present midges. Argh!
 
We still have a way to go before we pick up the path to Corrie Halle and we trudge on.
I slip on some slimy rocks and end up with a hand full of mud! I shout back to Eric to take care on the rocks, but he has the same spill as me and ends up with peaty mud all up his sleeve! Ooooops. We stop at a wee stream so that the dogs can have a well deserved drink and Eric cleans off his jacket.
 
We trudge across the path and look back over the peaks of An Teallach, which is now my favourite place and favourite hike yet! We pick up the old military track and follow it for what seems like an eternity but we have good pace and make good time. As we walk through the forest of birch trees, a small flock of sheep appear from the bracken and bolt across the path. Eek! We finally reach the road, lead up the dogs and walk back towards the lay-by, where the car is parked. Dogs in the back and gear off, we drive round to Ullapool for the night.

We pitch on the shoreline right at the end of the Broomfield Caravan Park and walk back into town. We try to eat our dinner and enjoy the evening but the midges are relentless! I give myself bad indigestion and end up a little green around the gills. We walk along to the Ferry Boat Inn and they say that we can bring the dogs in after meals have ended in 20 mins, so we do a couple of circuits of the lower part of town before enjoying out post walk pint and a look through the photos.

Eric has taken some amazing pictures. More than he normally does, which is a good thing though as my BB got a drenching on Glen Shiel Ridge last week and my spare phone ran out of battery after the first mountain on An Teallach. We finish our drinks and walk back to the tent. We fall asleep listening to the water lap the shore.

Thursday 18 August

Up early and we pack up the tent and head through Ullapool and back down towards Drumnadrochit. We decide to stop a little further down in Fort Augustus for lunch and a stretch of the legs. I take over the driving and batter down the road. As we head through Glen Coe, a fighter jet rips through the sky line with an almighty woosh.

We make good time and are back at Eric's before we know it. Eric spends the evening sorting through the pictures and getting them all cleared up. We enjoy looking back through them and both agree that An Teallach is one of the best hikes we have done. I enjoyed every second of it and would like to go back but maybe to do the mountains of Fisherfield with a wild camp next to the loch on the east side of An Teallach…  …see the range from another angle.

The South Glen Shiel Ridge - 10th August 2011

Pronunciation/Translation: Creag a' Mhaim - crayk a vaim (rock of the large round hill), Druim Shionnach - drim heenach (ridge of the fox), Aonach air Chrith - oenach ayr chree (trembling hill), Maol Chinn-dearg - moel chan dyerack (bald red hill), Sgurr an Doire Leathain - skoor an dira lehan (peak of the broad thicket), Sgurr an Lochain - skoor an lochan (peak of the little loch), Creag nan Damh - crayk nan dav (rock of the stags).



I had planned to walk this ridge early last year when there was still a lot of snow on the ground. I had to change my plans, because it was around this time in my life that young Alfie came about and demanded priority attention. Every time I pass through Kintail I gaze up and mutter that we really need to get that ridge done.

The main problem with doing the South Glen Sheil Ridge is the logistics of using one car between the start and end points of the hike. When I heard that the GWHC were planning on doing the route again, I got excited as car logistics would be easily sorted out.

Most of the others who had signed up to do the ridge were staying overnight at the Kintail Lodge's bunkhouse. Shona and I (plus dogs) planned to camp at the Shiel Bridge Campsite. We set off early evening on Tuesday 9th. During a pitstop at the Green Welly Stop we bumped into Barry who had been co-ordinating the meetup, sadly he had decided to pull out of this one as he'd been feeling unwell.

When we arrived at the Shiel Bridge site the weather was quite amiable, meaning that the midges were out in full force. Pitching was done as quickly as possible in order to limit the number of red dots appearing on uncovered skin. We decided to take the dogs for a walk up the path which connects the campsite to the Allt a Choire Chaoll. At least at a steady pace the midges would find it difficult to keep up with us. After a few miles, with the light beginning to fade we turned back to cook up some fine campsite cuisine before retiring to our sleeping bags.

Next morning we quickly got our things organised for the walk and headed round to the Kintail Lodge to meet up with the rest of the group. Unfortunately the rain that had been forecast had come early and had been falling steadily throughout the night. This was going to be a really wet day on the hills. After working out who would leave their cars where, we formed a convoy and drove to the start point at the Cluanie Inn.

Udo skipping past the Cluanie Inn's posh entrance

Hazy view down to Loch Cluanie

Long walk in

With waterproofs on and hoods up from the start we set off along the dirt road towards Cluanie Lodge. The track initially headed east then at the lodge, began to rise and veer southwards. After crossing a couple of tributaries of the Allt Ghiubhais the track made  a right angle turn east again and it was here that we broke off and made our way over a large stile and onto a very wet, heathery hillside.

The constant precipitation had taken it's toll underfoot. The narrow stalkers path up the hillside had been turned into what could easily be mistaken as a new tributary of the Allt Ghiubhais. From the stile at around 250m the route ascended steeply through the heather to 600m. At this elevation the heather changed to tussocks of grass and rocky outcrops, and it was here that we became truly immersed inside thick cloud.

We were soon up onto the ridge and it was a short trek east to the summit of our first munro of the day, Creag a' Mhaim at 947m. The toughest part of the day was behind us, or so we thought. Now that we were on the ridge, it would just be a case of traversing 11km of ascents and descents between summits. The weather had other ideas in store for us, still constantly spilling rain upon us, now from a sideways direction as well as from above.

We made it to the second munro Druim Shionnach (987m) much sooner than I had expected. Shona and I had settled into a nice steady pace at the front of the group with the dogs to keep them from getting in people's way. We waited for everyone to gain the summit before heading off for summit number three. Fortunately the group had taken the hint that it wasn't going to be appropriate to sit down and feed on each summit cairn.

Tramping onwards to the next summit, Aonach air Chrith, I began to find that I was running low on energy. Perhaps It was the fact that this peak was the highest of the seven munros, but I really did feel the burn on my thighs here to get to the 1021m elevation. Shona and I broke into some chocolate and shared a can of energy drink while Alfie and Bracken attempted to shelter from the wind and rain.

Coming down off this summit was interesting. The terrain was very steep and there was quite a bit of scrambling required to down-climb parts of the route. As we continued on through the clouds it was quite amusing to hear but not see the commentary of those encountering the steep ground we had just covered. Maol Chinn-dearg (981m) was next on our route and took us beyond the halfway point of the ridge. In good weather we would have been able to view the breathtaking rocky drop-offs to our right as we traversed westwards. Today sadly all we could see was great chasms filled with mist.

We took in another summit on the ridge, Sgurr Coire na Feinne. This one doesn't qualify as a munro at just over 900m, but number five wasn't too far off to the west and 110m higher up.

I think it was just after the fith summit, Sgurr an Doire Leathain (1010m)  that our navigation experienced a short malfunction.  It's easily done when your heads are down fighting against horizontal rain and your eyes are trained on the worn footpath a few metres ahead. Several of us up front continued along a northerly path assuming that as it continued through the clouds it would veer west. Steve who was striding alongside us equipped with a Satmap system suddenly stopped alerted by an alarm indicator on his unit. At the same moment, Noelle who I can only describe as a human compass was shouting us back from further behind on the ridge. We made the short jaunt back to the location where we should have continued west, fortunately our hoods managed to hide our red faces.

The sixth and seventh munros of the day seem to pass by in a blur of wet mist and sodden path. Before we knew it we had covered Sgurr an Lochain (1004m) and were standing on Creag nan Damh (918m) feeling elated that we had made it to the seventh summit. It was especially sweet for one of our team who was celebrating crossing off his 100th munro. We didn't hang about too long as the weather was still punishing us on the ridge. We headed on to find the path down from the Bealach Duibh Leac. It was here that Noelle decided she fancied sneaking in the nearby corbett of Sgurr a Bhac Chaolais. I'd have been up for doing this one too, but the look on the dogs faces was so miserable that we decided in their interests to head to lower ground.

Everyone's mood seem to perk up as we took the rocky, zig zagging path down from the bealach towards the Allt Coire Toiteil. However if we thought we were wet, we were about to find out there was wetter yet to come. A usually docile river crossing via a ford was today a raging torrent of frothy water hurrying along. Steve bravely took to the middle of the ford to test it's depth. I really didn't want to be hanging around with the dogs here so quickly leaded up Alfie and waded with him directly across. He did really well to swim over with me and spurred on by this, Shona did the same with Bracken.

Some of the rest of the group were being slightly more cautious and were using the chain link method to make the crossing. Steve and Udo decided to wait here for Noelle as it would be quite dangerous to attempt to cross over solo.

With water now filling our boots we sludged on down the muddy path to the lower valley where we were met by the tree-line and curtains of wet ferns along the route. Another final obstacle was put in our path in the shape of the Allt Mhaiagain. The path came to a ford which this time had much deeper and faster flowing water cascading through it. It was deemed an unwise place to cross and so we veered slightly further upstream to see if there was somewhere safer to cross.

We came to a deer fence which crossed over the river gorge. This would be ideal for allowing the group to get across, but useless for Shona and I with the dogs. We were still looking at braving the white water torrents to get to the other side. After much debate about safety issues, several of us got together and formed a chain and managed to pass the dogs over the rapids. While fighting to stay upright I caught a glimpse of the two of them paddling for dear life against the current. I hate to think what would have happened if their harnesses had snapped here. Once the dogs were safely on the other bank, I had a moment when I tried to move my left leg and realised it was pinned under a rock on the river bed. I had to muster all my strength to move my shin forward against the current and the offending boulder to get it free. With the freezing water flowing swiftly past me around my hips, I dragged myself onto the bank rather paler in the cheeks than normal.

From the river, we all made the short walk down to the main road relaying our stories of the exciting end to our dreary wet walk along the Glen Shiel Ridge. After retrieving the car from the Cluanie Inn car park, we gave the dogs a thorough towel dry and left them to steam up the car as we enjoyed the warm showers at the campsite. After giving the dogs their nightly feed, we then nipped round to the bar at the Kintail Lodge for a hearty vegetable curry and welcome pint.

A few hours later we were all huddled up in the warmth of our sleeping bags in the tent listening to the wind and rain. eventually at some point during the night it calmed down and we were greeted with bluer skies the next morning.

A few months later, Ross from the GWHC was up at Glen Shiel again and managed to find a perfectly intact bridge some metres downstream from the main ford we had refused to tackle... doh!

(pictures courtesy of the GWHC members)