Glen Strathfarrar Munros
10 May 2007
Access to these Munros is normally from Glen Strathfarrar where a
tarred road, apparently private, runs through the Glen to Monar
Lodge. At the cottage beside Inchmore there is a locked gate which
prevents public access to the Glen except at certain times.
I arrived at Inchmore early to meet my clients for the day, Tony and
Norman. At precisely nine o'clock, don't expect to obtain access any
earlier, the gatekeeper permitted us access and we drove to just west
of Inchvuilt where we left a vehicle before returning down the Glen to
east of Loch a'Mhuillidh. Although cloudy it appeared to be breaking
up so I was hopeful that the forecast for better weather in the
afternoon was a bit out time wise.
We set off on a vehicle track up the side of the Allt Coire
Mhuillidh. However the track soon became a boggy path as we headed
for Sgurr na Ruaidhe's south west ridge. The ascent of this ridge
was a bit of a slog and we soon came to the cloud base and my optimism
for an improvement in the weather diminished. The higher we got the
windier and colder it became and there were traces of some lying
snow. Before reaching the summit cairn we encountered one of those
snow showers.
After a few minutes at Sgorr na Ruaidhe's summit we descended to its
bealach with Carn nan Gobhar where we had a brief view into the Glen
of our approach before climbing back into the clouds. Norman was
keeping us up to date with our progress as he had a guide to the time
it should take to climb each of the Munros. However the top of Sgorr
na Ruaidhe soon put paid to reaching the summit within the stipulated
time as it is covered in large boulders which were made slippery by a
mixture of rain and sleet.
On reaching the cairn we sought some shelter from the cold wind and
the showers for a bite to eat before completing the traverse of the
boulders and heading for the foot of Sgurr a'Choire Ghlais's east
ridge. A fairly steep climb soon took us to its summit which has a
trig point and two large cairns. I have never been able to decide
which is the highest point so a visit to all three was necessary.
It was cloudy and windy with the occasional rain or hail shower as we
headed to the final Munro of the day, Sgurr Fhuar-thuill, over the
Munro Top, Creag Ghorm a'Bhealaich. It was unfortunate that
visibility was so poor as it would have been an interesting ridge walk
if we had had some views.
On reaching Sgurr Fhuar-thuill, according to Norman five minutes
behind schedule, we dropped to the col with Sgurr na Fearstaig and
followed the stalker's path to Loch Toll a'Mhuic, where we came out of
the cloud. Beyond this Loch the path is actually a vehicle track and
we followed it to the road in Glen Strathfarrar where we had left a
car earlier that day.
We exited the Glen at the locked gate, well before the 7pm
deadline.
Time taken - 6.75 hours.
Distance - 17 kilometres.
Height climbed - 1535 metres.
Due to poor weather there are only a few photos of poor quality but
they can be seen here:
http://www.caledoniahilltreks.com/galleries/strathfarrar_may07/index.htm
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com