Hillwalking Thread

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Loch Quoich was a bit choppy for the kayak so Sgurr Mor was binned for a repeat of Sgurr a'Mhaoraich, a hill I had a total nightmare in shite weather on a couple of years ago. Glorious conditions at the summit with great views to Loch Hourn especially.

[invergowrie arab]

48 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

Loch Quoich was a bit choppy for the kayak so Sgurr Mor was binned for a repeat of Sgurr a'Mhaoraich, a hill I had a total nightmare in shite weather on a couple of years ago. Glorious conditions at the summit with great views to Loch Hourn especially.

Great weather this afternoon for me to be driving around art galleries.

That's a ton of snow shifted these last few days. Glen Shiel was down to 600m on Saturday 

 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Great weather this afternoon for me to be driving around art galleries.
That's a ton of snow shifted these last few days. Glen Shiel was down to 600m on Saturday 
 

Aye we were on Gleouriach and Spidean Mialach on Friday and Sgurr Mor's North ridge was caked to about 750ish, just a wee bit hanging around in the gullies now. Although the only remaining snow on today's hill was of course banking out the final section of path literally 50m from the top requiring a fun packed traverse on steep wet grass and kicking steps into a 10ft high snow bank to avoid possibly the most rage inducing hill retreat ever [emoji23]

[invergowrie arab]

So having wasted a great day yesterday I crossed my fingers and went up the three eastern Kintail Munros.

Never got any more than 2 or 3 minutes of views with cloud blowing through all day but I really enjoyed. Easy walking on good paths throughout and very impressive corries.  

Main issue today was still a bit of snow requiring kicking steps and a 50m traverse on the bypass path north of Sgùrr nan Conbhairean which,  had there been a slip, would not have ended well.

Sting in the tail was the horrible descent off the ridge not helped by an absolute downpour turning an already steep and boggy descent into a pop up burn.

All in all good fun though and would recommend these as much as anything else in Kintail 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

So having wasted a great day yesterday I crossed my fingers and went up the three eastern Kintail Munros.
Never got any more than 2 or 3 minutes of views with cloud blowing through all day but I really enjoyed. Easy walking on good paths throughout and very impressive corries.  
Main issue today was still a bit of snow requiring kicking steps and a 50m traverse on the bypass path north of Sgùrr nan Conbhairean which,  had there been a slip, would not have ended well.
Sting in the tail was the horrible descent off the ridge not helped by an absolute downpour turning an already steep and boggy descent into a pop up burn.
All in all good fun though and would recommend these as much as anything else in Kintail 

Aye, I think these three are a bit underrated purely because of what's along the road. I did them in May a few years back and encountered some rather awkward snow on what sounds like the same area. I also got lulled into a false sense of security on the descent, as the ridge is lovely on top but utter shite further down. I ignored the standard return and just headed straight for the main road, somewhat scunnered by boggy hell.

We were pissing about on Loch Garry on the kayaks today, the forecast downpour missed Glen Garry completely, until about 4pm.

Forecast for tomorrow and Friday looks excellent, so fingers crossed we can get the 4 done on the Rough Bounds.

[invergowrie arab]

11 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

Aye, I think these three are a bit underrated purely because of what's along the road. I did them in May a few years back and encountered some rather awkward snow on what sounds like the same area. I also got lulled into a false sense of security on the descent, as the ridge is lovely on top but utter shite further down. I ignored the standard return and just headed straight for the main road, somewhat scunnered by boggy hell.

We were pissing about on Loch Garry on the kayaks today, the forecast downpour missed Glen Garry completely, until about 4pm.

Forecast for tomorrow and Friday looks excellent, so fingers crossed we can get the 4 done on the Rough Bounds.

Same here. Straight down to the road, partly bogs and partly having done 1300m of ascent we weren't doing 50 more. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Managed Sgurr Mor via Kayak across Loch Quoich today. It was windier than expected, hence shiting it at times trying to negotiate waves in an inflatable. Epic day though and a great way to approach these hills.

[invergowrie arab]

That looks class. How long did the paddle take?

 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

That looks class. How long did the paddle take?
 

Aye tough going but awesome. 33 mins in, 36 back out into the wind. It's a shade under 2 miles on the water each way

[Swello]

How full was Loch Quoich? I also paddled the length of it to climb Sgurr a Choire Beith (a *fantastic* ridge walk but a tough day if you're still in the area) and the main problem was getting through the sludge to actually get to the water - it was scary thigh deep stuff in places.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

How full was Loch Quoich? I also paddled the length of it to climb Sgurr a Choire Beith (a *fantastic* ridge walk but a tough day if you're still in the area) and the main problem was getting through the sludge to actually get to the water - it was scary thigh deep stuff in places.

I've seen Quoich lower tbh. I was up in November for Gairich and the level was down a good bit. We got straight into the rocky shingle on the far shore no bother. The water was also fairly close to the two "mini dams" under Ben Aden.

[Scorge]

Anyone on here done the Easians? Went to Corrour last summer and picked off Beinn Na Lap and Sgòr Gaibhre/Càrn Dearg as my first solo munros: looking for a return visit this summer and would appreciate any pointers in any difficulty increase....

[Swello]

41 minutes ago, Scorge said:

Anyone on here done the Easians? Went to Corrour last summer and picked off Beinn Na Lap and Sgòr Gaibhre/Càrn Dearg as my first solo munros: looking for a return visit this summer and would appreciate any pointers in any difficulty increase....

It's a fantastic walk from Fersit - but they are a step up from Beinn na Lap in every way. I did it as a winter walk and my crampons were on for practically the whole time on the hill.  If there is still snow, the climb up the north side would be potentially dodgy, as would the drop off the ridge for the return (it was corniced when I did it). 

As a summer walk, the only issue would be if the cloud was down on parts of the ridge but other than that - it's a great choice of walk (and makes a change from Ben Lawers and Ben Vorlich ).

[Scorge]

3 hours ago, Swello said:

It's a fantastic walk from Fersit - but they are a step up from Beinn na Lap in every way. I did it as a winter walk and my crampons were on for practically the whole time on the hill.  If there is still snow, the climb up the north side would be potentially dodgy, as would the drop off the ridge for the return (it was corniced when I did it). 

As a summer walk, the only issue would be if the cloud was down on parts of the ridge but other than that - it's a great choice of walk (and makes a change from Ben Lawers and Ben Vorlich ).

Sounds great, thank you. Lovely part of the country and does wonders spending time in it.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Meall Dubh, last hill of the trip with a haul of 2 new munros, 3 repeats and 5 corbetts. Delighted with that as the forecast often looked absolute gubbins but we managed to walk, kayak or bike everyday without getting rain on, or drowning. Glorious.

[Swello]

12 hours ago, Day of the Lords said:

Meall Dubh, last hill of the trip with a haul of 2 new munros, 3 repeats and 5 corbetts. Delighted with that as the forecast often looked absolute gubbins but we managed to walk, kayak or bike everyday without getting rain on, or drowning. Glorious.

Meall Dubh has escaped my attention before now - looks like a good "I'll do it on the way home" kind of hill

[invergowrie arab]

Talking of "I'll do it on the way home" we were driving past Moruisg this morning and thought why not just run up and down.

The climb itself has absolutely nothing to recommend it, although we didn't find it overly boggy, the views were amazing though and well worth the calf burning climb and knee crunching descent.

 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

13 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

Talking of "I'll do it on the way home" we were driving past Moruisg this morning and thought why not just run up and down.

The climb itself has absolutely nothing to recommend it, although we didn't find it overly boggy, the views were amazing though and well worth the calf burning climb and knee crunching descent.

 

I hated Moruisg 

Although my opinion was coloured somewhat by the fact that we did it on the Friday of a week of glorious weather spent on all the classic Torridon hills, and had climbed Liathach in perfect conditions the day before. A shite grassy mound was never really going to cut it. My legs were also gubbed so the ascent and the bog preceding it were somewhat unwelcome. By contrast the neighbouring corbett/ex-munro was a fine hill with a pleasant descent to a good path out. 

[invergowrie arab]

27 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

I hated Moruisg 

Although my opinion was coloured somewhat by the fact that we did it on the Friday of a week of glorious weather spent on all the classic Torridon hills, and had climbed Liathach in perfect conditions the day before. A shite grassy mound was never really going to cut it. My legs were also gubbed so the ascent and the bog preceding it were somewhat unwelcome. By contrast the neighbouring corbett/ex-munro was a fine hill with a pleasant descent to a good path out. 

Don't get me wrong the hill itself is boring and painful I was almost radicalised to join the gamekeepers association on the way up as I thought of all the lovely zig zagging stalkers paths I had been up all week and the absolute stupid fucking lines hillwalkers create when left to their devices.

I'll probably go back  and do the Corbett but we had a pub reservation with friends in Inverness. 

Like you, our legs had gone after a hard week and I should have known when I struggled to get up Sgùrr a' Chaorachain at the Bealach na Bà the previous day.

As, I said not too boggy as in we could always avoid submerged feet but just boggy enough to sap every last bit of strength out of your thighs before a ridiculously steep direct line up.

It's a perfect spot for views to almost everything north of the great Glen though.

Camera angles never do it justice but if you can't see the descent below it's never a good sign 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

25 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

Don't get me wrong the hill itself is boring and painful I was almost radicalised to join the gamekeepers association on the way up as I thought of all the lovely zig zagging stalkers paths I had been up all week and the absolute stupid fucking lines hillwalkers create when left to their devices.

I'll probably go back  and do the Corbett but we had a pub reservation with friends in Inverness. 

Like you, our legs had gone after a hard week and I should have known when I struggled to get up Sgùrr a' Chaorachain at the Bealach na Bà the previous day.

As, I said not too boggy as in we could always avoid submerged feet but just boggy enough to sap every last bit of strength out of your thighs before a ridiculously steep direct line up.

It's a perfect spot for views to almost everything north of the great Glen though.

Camera angles never do it justice but if you can't see the descent below it's never a good sign 

Yeah i do remember getting nice views to the Fisherfields and beyond from on the way up Moriusg (we needed frequent breather photo stops). I think i'd have had an emotional breakdown if I'd had to retrace the route of ascent to get down again 

I think i had about 10 days of both ends of the path spectrum. The stalkers paths around Loch Quoich are fantastic, especially up the three munros on the north side. Sgurr Mor's path .linking it to the corbett had a real old world feel to it as did the grassy path zig-zagging back off Sgurr an Fhuarain's north ridge.  In contrast, climbing the 800m out of Coire Buidhe on steep pathless ground pretty much until Sgurr Mor's summit ridge was absolute hell.