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)
