Friday, August 12, 2022

Spidean Coire nan Clach (Beinn Eighe)

Making our way up steep slopes from Glen Torridon it sometimes seemed, from the crumbling sandstone and the sliding fans of scree, that the mountain itself was trying to make its way down!


The forecast had suggested that the weather would gradually clear, but we reached the triangulation pillar without having had more than tantalising glimpses of the views.


The trig point is a crooked affair made of stones; I couldn't see a flush bracket, but learnt from trig pointing.uk that the number is S9418. This however is not the summit.


That was just visible through the clouds; it lies a little to the north-east and is reached by an enjoyable scramble, so we left our rucksacks in the shelter and set off along the ridge.


The clouds parted momentarily to give us a view of the corrie and our route of ascent.





We made our way back to the trig point and began our descent, stopping for lunch by a cairn on the col that marks the start of the path down. A raven landed a little way off and was soon joined by a second bird, after which the cloud drifted across once more and blotted them out.


Below the cairn is the steepest section of the walk, involving first mud and grass, and then dry scree which rolls away under your feet taking you with it. It had been tiring to walk up but it was tiring in a different way to get down. We were relieved to get to the end of that stretch, and I even relaxed enough to spot a little bunch of starry saxifrage by a stream - a wildflower I've only once seen before (on the summit of Sgorr Ruadh, June 2018).


We found a handy seat and had a coffee stop, looking south-east over Loch Clair and Loch Coulin.


It was a bit annoying to note that the cloud really had cleared now, so anyone on the tops would be getting great views. We'd met two men making their way up separately. The first had nothing with him at all - no rucksack, not even a bottle of water; and the second one was carrying a mountain bike on his back. They both seemed quite cheerful! Looking back up the hill with bins, I realised that a triangular reddish scar was in fact a large hole. The path had passed close to it but we hadn't seen it.


I diverted out onto a small prominence to get a picture of the rest of the way down, with Loch Bharranch across the road from the car park and the Corbett Sgurr Dubh rising beyond. 


On another hill-walk a few years back (the Beinn Liath Mhor ridge, July 2017), I took a picture of this mountain massif and remarked in the blog-post that we'd never ventured onto it. Well, now we have - and while it's a pity that we couldn't go on from the top to bag the other Munro on Beinn Eighe I have to accept our limitations these days and just be pleased we've been on it at all. (Munro number 148 for me, 108 for Greger.)

// posted by Christine @ 1:07 PM
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