As I apprach the end of my (first?) round of Munros, I have to admit to
feeling it's all become a bit of a chore. Part of me just want to get it
over and done with so that I can move onto doing other things.
Therefore, it can be a bit of a challenge just getting up the necessary
enthusiasm. Luckily (more by luck than planning), I've saved some juicy
ones for the end - the sort of mountain you'd want to do regardless of
it's stature. However, poor old A'Ghlas Bheinn falls into the more
mundane category. Lets face it, it's surrounded by some absolute
crackers, including the Five Sister, Beinn Fhada and Sgurr nan
Ceathreamhnan.
Given a Saturday off, and the potential drive from Edinburgh, I reckoned
that a "smash and grab" raid was on for this weekend. Friday 18:00, I
was on my way and made it up to Morvich for 22:00 (including a stop at
the Little Chef in Spean Bridge). To simplify logistics, and to make
sure I made the most of the good weather forecast, I decided to simply
kip in the car and with the seats folded down and sleeping bag and mat
laid out, it didn't take me long to drop off.
6 AM and I was up and having breakfast (including a flask of coffee
kindly topped up foc from the Little Chef). It the morning light, it was
clear that the snow had all but dissappeared, so it was a quick rucksack
re-pack job and axe/crampons etc - all absolutely necessary only two
weeks ago on Ben More - were left at the car.
The path up to the Gates of Affric turned out to be a lot drier than I'd
have thought in light of the recent rain and the melt. In parts, it's
incredibly well made. One river crossing did give me some concern, the
Allt Coire an Sgairne was in full flow and the normal stepping stones
were under a bit of a torrent. However, some kind soul had laid two thin
(1"?) iron bars across the river and, with a bit of judiscious walking
pole work, I managed to cross dry shod.
I arrived at the Bealach an Sgairne still below cloud level, though it
didn't seem to be much above me. The view out across the glen was lovely
- if a tad wet looking. Turning up A'Ghlas Bheinn now, It didn't take me
long to come across the first of it's many false summits. The path
wandering up this SE ridge was faint in places, sometimes covered by
patches of snow, but the intent was clear and it was possible to follow
it almost all the way to the summit. Having hit cloud at around 800M, I
was glad of the GPS - not for route finding, but to avoid
dissappointment as each successive false summit was crested.
The clouds at the summit were certainly very thin, so I resolved to hang
around for while to see if it would clear. In the space of around an
hour, it broke maybe five-six times and I was rewarded with views of the
summits of both Beinn Fhada and Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan just jutting out
of the cloud.
After the hour the cloud didn't seem to be getting any thinner so I made
my way down the North East ridge, again over many intervening bumps. As
I did so, the cloud cover began to both lift and break up and I was soon
able to see my next port of call - the Falls of Glomach.
The Falls are certainly spectacular, all the more so given the amount of
water around. I tried to take photos, but the approach from the top of
the falls is so close, and the falls so large, that one just cannot
capture it all. There's also a Geocache hereabouts and I tended to that
whilst in the area.
By now the sun really was out in force, so the walk back to the car was
undertaken topless (look away girls).
All in all, an absolutely marvellous day. The early start, the cloud
inversion, the brilliant blue skies in the afernoon and the ribbons of
snow picking out the Kintail hills. Who said A'Ghlas Bheinn was going to
be a boring lump!
druidh