There are some days in the hills which are just a cut above the rest, and this was undoubtedly one of those... three magnificent Munros, in the heart of the wild west coast, bathed in glorious sunshine, clocking up my 250th Munro, and chatting to really interesting folks that I met along the way.
The drive to the access point in Glen Dessarry is exceptionally beautiful, but extremely long. As soon as the main road is left just after Spean Bridge, progress is unbelievably slow. It's only 23miles from the Post Office at Spean Bridge to the road-end at Loch Arkaig, but it takes well over an hour. It begins winding its way around the Caledonian Canal, and Loch Lochy, before doubling back to run alongside the length of Loch Arkaig. The lochside road is slow, but wonderful. As I drove in on Friday night, the deep forests smelled damp, the loch glistened in the sun, and in the far distance the great western mountains with Tolkeinesque names such as Sgurr Thuilm, beckoned me on from the horizon.
I managed to find a camping spot just short of the road-end car park, and after a chat with a fellow walker camped nearby, managed to have a brew, and settle into my tent for the night. I've done a lot of walking in groups, and with my family; but I've also gone to the hills alone a lot. About half the Munros I've done, have been solitary climbs, and the same is true in terms of days spent exploring glens, waterfalls or coastal paths. Sometimes these have been rewarding because they have provided wonderful experiences of pure isolation; while on many other occasions I have fallen in step with fellow-walkers. I'd be lying if I said I had never met a rude on unpleasant hill walker; but my experience on the whole has been that the people I meet in wild and remote places are consistently amongst the most thoughtful and engaging folk I've met. Saturday turned out to be a great case of the latter, the guy pitching his tent just along from mine, was heading up the same hills as me, so we teamed up for the day.
Up at first light, I packed up my tent, and cleared my little roadside campsite, and brewed big pot of coffee as the sun arrived on Loch Arkaig. Not long after that we tramped down to the road end, past the gate and soon forked right towards Glen Dessarry Lodge. The glen bifurcates beyond the hamlet of Strachan, Glen Pean to the left, and Dessarry to the right. Glen Dessarry has paths up each side of it, and we elected to stay on the North side, above the tree line - in order to be able to see where to turn uphill. Our fear was that the lower track (although apparently in better condition), was so concealed in the woods that seeing where to turn into the hill would be impossible.
The track, after it passes the few building in the glen, disintegrates into a muddy footpath. It has been dry recently, and yet the ground here held a lot of moisture. After heavy rain I wouldn't fancy it at all! There are two large forests in the glen, and about halfway along the North side of the second of these, the forest line extends Northwards at the line of a stream called the Allt Coire nan Uth. The burn was easily forded and very shortly afterwards a tiny cairn indicated the start of the ascent of our first hill of the day - Sgurr nan Coireachan. Knowing that a long, hot day was forecast as we walked over rocky, streamless ridges, I was carrying a lot of water; which felt unbearably heavy as we slogged our way up the path. 800m of relentless ascent were made easier by the rapidly expanding views. and the excellent banter of my walking companion for the day. I think by this stage we were on to history!
The path becomes rocky in its upper reaches, dives around a false summit and pulls up to the Munro proper - a magnificent airy viewpoint. Ben Nevis was obvious to the SE, while the Glen Finnan hills filled the foreground in front of us. The ridge, winding its way westwards looked daunting and thrilling too, culminating in the great summit of Sgurr na Ciche. This is the wild heart of the "Rough Bounds of Knoydart". It was also here that we picked up the remains of the dry stone wall that runs along the ridge, marked on the 1:25000 map as a thin black line. It was obviously a large wall once, but its' remains kept us company across a couple of miles of dramatic, twisting ridge walking.
The path off the first Munro was steep, but obvious and led easily onto the climb up the second. This turned out to be a real slog! First the intermediate top of Garbh Chioch Bheag has to made, a gruelling almost 250m pull up the ridge. After some height is lost, a further 100+ metre ascent it required before the Munro is gained. This was 250th Munro, Garbh Chioch Mhor, and it certainly put up a fight! The views, now also in Knoydart were just breathtaking.
Garbh Choich Mhor and Sgurr na Ciche are less than a kilometre apart - yet are separated by a 250 metre-deep cleft, which has to be climbed down, and then up. As we left the old dry-stone wall which does not go to the summit, we dropped our rucksacks and went up to the peak and back. The views here were just astonishing! A few years ago, I had stood with my younger son on Meall Bhuide on Knoydart, looked at Sgurr na Ciche's sleek beautiful lines and longed to climb it. I've stood with people on Ben Nevis who have said "What's that really pointy-one over there?", and gazed on it from Torridon's great peaks to the North - where a whole load of my friends were climbing that day. At last on Saturday I managed to climb it, something I had longed to do for years! It surpassed all my expectations. We stayed there, chatting to several small groups of passing walkers, for as long as time would allow; but aware of the declining length of autumn ways, and the long walk out, reluctantly trudged back to our rucksacks hidden in the bealach.
The descent back into Glendessarry is via a steep, rocky and sometimes unpathed gully, which plunges almost 350metres southwesterly from the bealach which separates the two hills. As the gully ends, the path obviously bears left and then descends to the head of the glen.
The walk back out is long and arduous. we took the other path back along the glen which at first it was pretty boggy; and ran through the two woods, rounding the back of the A'Chuil bothy, and back to the car - and more importantly some hug bottles of water!
At the end of one of the best day's hillwalking I have ever done, I bade my new friend farewell, and began the mammoth drive home. As I approached Spean Bridge, I realised that I must have had no phone reception over the weekend, as my phone suddenly lit up with a battery of missed calls, texts and social media updates. I was back in the 21st Century!
The Sgurr na Ciche group are some of the finest Munro's I have climbed. If you are a hillwalker, I'd say - save them for a sunny day. The miles are long, the ridges steep and the challenges significant; but these hills offer superlative ridge walking, in magnificent scenery. These hills are simply unmissable!
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