Beinn Eighe – So Good, I Almost Did It Twice!

Wed 10 Sep 2014
I’d booked into the B&B of Cromasaig near Kinlochewe for four nights as I’d arranged to meet my friend Mark on one of the days to do the infamous Meall Dearg (Liathach Northern Pinnacles). As I was driving all the way to Torridon – an eight hour drive for me – I thought it was a good plan to bag some of my other tops in the area. To be honest, I was hoping to bag all the remaining ones in the area but, due to this particular day, it didn’t work out like that and I needed a relaxing day to wind down and recover afterwards.

(click on photos for full size/resolution)

Meall Dearg was scheduled for the next day and the week’s weather was glorious – hot and sunny and calm – perfect for the hills. Not trusting the weather to stay good, I decided to get my biggest day out of the way first – the whole of Beinn Eighe’s long ridge including a rewalk of one of the Munros and all the Munro Tops. I parked up at the Ling Hut carpark between Beinn Eighe and Liathach and was on my way by 0920 – it was already pretty warm.

I plodded up the rise into the gap between the mountains on the track which goes around, in four miles, to the spectacular Coire Mhic Fhearchair – home to the famous Triple Buttress. I was looking forward to seeing the corrie and the Triple Buttress as last time I did Beinn Eighe, as part of a large group, it was very misty and we only saw the lower part of the buttresses. I was also stressed out (and was to remain so all day) as I was hugely worried about how steep and horrid the corrie wall would be up to my first Top of Sail Mhor. As stress makes me very tired, as does heat, I made very heavy weather of the walk in.

Incidentally, I saw a perfectly easy grassy rake up the western side of the ridge on the walk in which would take you to the col immediately before Sail Mhor – I assume the reasons it doesn’t ever get used are twofold – firstly, people want to see Coire Mhic Fhearchair and secondly, no-one else has noticed it but me!

Grassy rake centre of photos – Both photos Mark Gibson

I rounded the end of Sail Mhor’s stupendous cleft end-buttresses and over the lip of the corrie to get my first glimpse (and hopefully better photos) of the Triple Buttress. The corrie was in full sun and, if it had been late afternoon or evening, would have made a superb photo – unfortunately, early in the day you’re looking straight into the sun and can’t see any of it properly, much less get photos! I took a couple looking back to the buttresses of Sail Mhor across the lovely corrie loch instead.

I decided to go around the east side of the lochan so that I could get a good view of my route up the corrie wall – it soon hove into view and I stopped and studied it anxiously. Actually, it looked fine – just a fairly steep grass slope with some sections of loose rock but no problem at all. I sighed in relief and set off round to tackle it.

Route goes up centre of photo

Because I’d been so stressed on the walk in, I ended up not making great progress up the steep slope and kept having to stop and rest. I suddenly noticed there were two deer about twenty feet away looking at me. They stared at me for a while and then, obviously thinking what a knackered old biddy I looked, decided I was no threat at all and proceeded to lay down to chew their cud right by me. They lay calmly chewing away and probably wondering why humans are so slow and inept uphill. There was an equally unconcerned deer calf just above totally ignoring me and, a little further away from the two ladies, two more hinds lying and scratching. I have to admit to feeling slightly insulted at their total lack of concern about me – I must look even worse than I feel going uphill.

I made it up the slope in about half an hour and saw a lovely easy stony ridge around to Sail Mhor with not too much ascent. I hoped I’d recover on the walk round but, after bagging the top and redescending to the col, I didn’t really feel any better.

Ruadh Stac Mor, Beinn Eighe’s main summit – the only 3000 foot peak I missed out

I looked ahead to my next challenge – the infamous ‘Bad Step’ up the Triple Buttress to take me onto Coinneach Mhor – oh dear, it didn’t look good.

The guy in my B&B had told me it was absolutely fine and really easy – it certainly didn’t look it from where I was standing. I approached to get a closer look, hoping it would look better as I got nearer – it didn’t!

Just before reaching the Bad Step, there are some blocky pinnacles to get around or over (either option would be fine). I clambered around them to their right until I was at the foot of the step. There was an initial vertical section of around 25 feet and there didn’t look to be any way around it. I knew I probably could climb that section but, being on my own on that part of the hill (and would be all day), there was no way I was going to tackle it thank you! I’d heard that going further round to the right took you to easier ground – I saw a tiny path headed off that way above a pretty nasty steep scree slope with plenty of crag falling all the way to the glen a couple of thousand feet below.

I ignored the slope below me as much as I could as I traversed loose ground on the little path. I got quite a way round the corner and, although I suspected there might be one gully up the crag, I couldn’t actually see into it. The sheer band of rock got quite a few feet taller and had far less holds around this side. In the end, I reluctantly decided Sail Mhor was going to be it for today and that I was returning the way I came up. I was half-heartedly considering whether I had the energy to reascend from the corrie loch up the normal scree chute to reach Coinneach Mhor but, either way, I was going back down to the corrie.

Luckily, I didn’t manage to follow the sketchy path accurately back round and ended up slightly higher up the slope. From here, I was certain I could see some kind of gully and clambered up to investigate. Indeed there was – it looked do-able too… I stood at the foot of it and studied it for a while – it was ideal for me as it was raking across the face and so you were in a sheltered groove away from the long drop to the glen. There were plenty of holds and it was nothing like vertical. It looked like it would take me to a rock corner at the top of the initial vertical section but, obviously, I had no idea what lie around the corner.

I decided to give the gully a go but kept looking back down to ensure I could reverse my route if I needed to – an important consideration when scrambling in the hills alone. The gully was very easy and I was soon on the rock corner and happy I could get back down from that point. However, a look round the corner presented me with a long climb up sloping, blocky slabs with a potential drop off them past the Triple Buttresses to the corrie floor. There were very big steps up but, on studying the route hard, I thought I had enough holds and plenty of friction on the dry rock. It was about another 30 feet up this section from what I could see though and I had no way of knowing what lie above and whether I could do it. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t really want to reverse the slabs but, even surprising myself, continued upwards. The slabby steps were easy enough for a tall person and I made sure I didn’t look down any more.

Happily, at the top of the slabs I saw that, just around the corner, there was a tiny upper corrie with easy paths up to the top of the peak – phew. Less happily, I’d really scared myself stupid doing such a route while alone on the hill and, on reaching the lovely flat mossy summit, had to have a rest for a drink and a calm-down. Unfortunately, such a bad start to my day really put me off for the rest of the walk and I ended up having a very tense time of the rest of the long ridge.

Mark Gibson’s zoom photo of the bad step (right-hand peak)

The peaceful mossy top of Choinneach Mhor with onward ridge behind

From here along the ridge to the Munro summit, Spidean Coire nan Clach, I was on familiar ground and this section went well and I took lots of photos.

Sail Mhor from Triple Buttress

Spidean Coire nan Clach, the main ridge Munro

Ruadh Stac Beag (Corbett)

The Munro of Ruadh Stac Mor

Looking back to Coinneach Mhor with back of Bad Step on left

Coinneach Mor (left) and Ruadh Stac Mhor (right)

Stob Coire an Laoigh

For some reason, although I’d taken the scramble up to the actual summit of Spidean Coire nan Clach from the Trig Point direct last time, this time I was tempted by a path round the side of the peak and onto the south eastern face. This side was very loose and not very pleasant ground (the scramble along the actual ridge is nice and firm) and, at one point, a scree section collapsed under me and sent me sliding downwards. This shook me up even more and I scrabbled frantically up to the summit and had to have another short rest to calm down again.

Don’t go right – go up the middle!

I studied the eastern ridge ahead – it didn’t look very nice at all. Sgurr Ban was first and had quite a craggy end – Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe beyond that looked horrid.

Oh well – I had to do my tops so I set off down the short descent on a nice zig-zag through the scree to the col for Sgurr Ban.

On reaching the craggy start of Sgurr Ban, I was pleased to see a path tackled the slight scramble really easily and I was soon heading along the ridge. The ridge was unexpectedly pleasant and there was a long stroll across almost level, firm slabs which I actually enjoyed. The short scree to the actual summit had a great path and was fine.

So far, so good but I still didn’t like the look of Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe – if anything, it looked worse close to. The peak is basically half a peak – the left side is completely sheer and gullies bite into the ridgeline. The right-hand side was horribly steep scree all the way down to the valley over 3000 feet below – I couldn’t really see anything in the way of a path. I knew I was going to hate it and just felt like running away. But I also knew that, after all the effort I’d put in, and in the absence of a better route, I was going to have to tackle it whether I liked it or not.

One of the things worrying me the most was that I’d had a glance at the eastern descent from the peak as I drove past in the morning and more or less knew I wouldn’t be happy to tackle such a long and steep scree slope. I strongly suspected I was going to have to come all the way back along the ridge, over Sgurr Ban and Spidean Coire nan Clach to reach the descent into Coire Laoigh from the trig point. Of course, that meant re-descending the fearsome Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe.

The eastern descent from Sgurr Ban wasn’t as pleasant as the other side – a loose zig-zag down scree right on the edge of some terrible crags and gullies down the northern face of the peak. The ridge was fairly wide though so at least if I felt I was too near the crags on loose stuff, I could go further south away from them. I descended slowly and carefully and tried not to look north and soon reached the col.

Without stopping to think about it and before I changed my mind, I headed straight on up Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe, luckily finding a path in the scree to start. The path stayed on the side of the peak above the steep scree slopes which I was okay with in ascent but not happy about having to descend later. I kept looking up to the crest of the ridgeline a few feet above – it was rocky but looked much firmer up there – I was sure I’d be happier. For the rest of the ascent, however, I stayed with the scree path but often grabbed rocks on the looser sections as I didn’t fancy sliding all the way down the south side to the road.

The summit area was comfortably spacious so I relaxed for a moment. I decided I’d best go and have a look down my originally intended eastern descent ridge – a path headed that way. The path zig-zagged through the scree but soon looked to head almost vertically downwards, at this point, directly above the long slide to the road. I dithered for a moment but, in the end, decided I’d be terrified going down it and that I’d have to turn back and backtrack along the ridge. This wasn’t a happy decision as, in addition to the unpleasant descent I would be faced with to start, I’d also run out of my small flask of coffee and knew it would be an arduous walk back in the heat of the sun and I’d be severely dehydrated.

I set off back down Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe’s steep western ridge but, from above, could see it was perfectly possible to use the rocky ridgeline most of the way down to the col. To me, firm rocks are preferable to sliding scree so that’s the way I went. At times, a gully would force me back onto the loose path and the descent took me at least half an hour – a ridiculous amount of time for such a short descent but I’m nothing if not cautious! I was very relieved to re-attain the col safely.

I found that, although I’d felt hot and tired all day, I was still perfectly capable of plodding slowly back up all my necessary re-ascents providing I kept my steady pace. As I feel much safer ascending scree as you don’t slither about, I had a good look down the northern crags and gullies on the reascent of Sgurr Ban – very interesting they were too.

I again enjoyed Stob Ban’s long western ridge to the col before the main summit. I’d seen there was a route north down from the col to the corrie east of Ruadh Stac Beag where there is a superb route back to Kinlochewe – I toyed with the idea of going that way and asking my B&B hosts to drive me back for my car. I eventually rejected the idea and continued for the usual Coire an Laoigh descent – I knew I’d probably get water in the corrie anyway.

I was very tired and dehydrated on the final reclimb of the summit scree and collapsed exhausted in the sun on the summit for a short rest. I descended the firm scramble this time for the trig point where I had another short sit – at least I was back on familiar ground.

Main summit from trig point – my retraced route on right

I was excessively cautious down the steep scree to the col above Coire an Laoigh – I was surprised to see people were still above me on the main ridge as I thought it was quite late in the day.

(Alternative route goes easily down right from this col)

There is a path down the steep corrie headwall from the col and, last time Richard and I descended this, he ended up slipping and heading down the corrie headfirst on his back (see my other Beinn Eighe report). This was a few years ago and the path was loose back then – now it’s totally washed out and is an unpleasant steep gully of loose earth (nowadays you’d be best to descend the plain grassy slopes on the opposite side to the corrie to the start of the outward path).

Looking up alternative descent

It was so bad that most people were abandoning the path and heading down the steep grass on the corrie wall. I persisted carefully but was pleased to reach the flatter section on the corrie floor. I was also pleased to reach the burn and had quite a few good flask cupfuls – wonderful.

My retraced peaks from the corrie

After a quick chat with a couple sat on a rock by the burn about how unpleasantly loose the route had become, I continued the long descent out of the corrie, by now on a great path.

Beinn Dubh from descent

On reaching the road at last, I had a couple of miles to walk back along to the carpark – I didn’t mind – I was glad to be back on terra firma. I was hoping Mark was now in situ in the carpark as he was camping there in his van. I knew I couldn’t tackle Meall Dearg the next day – it was 8 p.m. and dropping dark and I was both traumatised and exhausted.

On approaching the carpark, I could see two white camping vans – I was pretty sure it was Mark’s parked next to my little Polo. The door was open and it was indeed Mark sat there enjoying the evening. I must have looked quite a state so I’m sure I was perfectly believable when I told him I didn’t think I was up to tackling Meall Dearg the next morning. Luckily he had Beinn Bhan to do so he agreed to do that the next day and that we’d meet up the day after in the same spot – phew.

As it was so late, I had to drive quickly to my B&B to report back off the hill and then go straight to the Kinlochewe Hotel bar for my tea in fully sweaty state – ugh! I sat by the open windows (a man promptly moved and sat by the bar) and apologised to the bar staff for being in such a state. They said they were perfectly used to such occurrences, being in a walking area. I had a couple of pints of my favourite re-hydration drink of lime and soda and a lovely 3-course meal and then went back to my accommodation and straight to bed!

In the morning, the guy at the B&B really annoyed me when he asked whether I’d had a good day and I said I’d been terrified on the Bad Step – he scornfully told me he’d done it on crutches it was so easy – as you needed hands all the way up, I somehow don’t think so!

All I did that day was stroll along the north side of Loch Maree from Incheril and back in the sunshine and then drive round to the beach at Gairloch for a refreshing paddle. I have to admit that this now seems to be becoming more my kind of day nowadays…

Stats: 14 miles, 5337 feet of ascent, 10 hours