Well last weekend in the western highlands was rather splendid! We were
walking round Binnein Mor, Binnein Beag and Sgurr Eilde Mor.
Started off in Kinlochleven and followed the path eastwards uphill
through woodland and then moorland before dropping a bit to a land rover
track. Weather was grey with a chilly easterly wind but was showing
promise...
From here it was a decent stalkers path that wound its way past Sgorr
Eilde Beag. At some point we wanted to gain this top and chanced upon a
path not marked on the OS map which took us to the summit of Sgorr Eilde
Beag.
The clouds had cleared offering superb views with all 3 of our intended
hills clearly visible.
We then easily followed the ridge to the tiny summit of Binnein Mor
which has great views of Nevis etc.
We took the north ridge off of the summit before wandering eastwards to
the foot of Binnein Beag. We'd seem other walkers coming down an awful
looking "path" on its south side and decided to try out a more
interesting route with some scrambling on its west. This turned out to
be a nice diversion and we were soon at the top.
Descending via the "path" we'd seen earlier I was glad we'd taken the
scrambling option. During the descent several ptarmigan were spotted.
We then took a stalkers path southwards past the easter corries of
Binnein Mor that eventually via some unwanted descent and reascent took
us to the foot of Sgurr Eilde Mor.
Didnt like the look of taking the direct tour up this hill, too much
scree. So followed a rough path which eventually snaked round its west
side and landed us on the summit via some scree & boulders and several
large snow fields.
We descended the way we came up and then after following the eastern
banks of the loch descended to Loch Eilde Mor and retraced our steps to
the car.
Some pics here -
http://www.prog99.com/Hillwalking%20in%20Scotland/2007/Mamores%20-%20March%202007/index.html
(Previous days pics here, not quite walking though)
http://www.prog99.com/Hillwalking%20in%20Scotland/2007/Creise%20etc%20-%20March%202007/index.html
--
Mike
Some pictures of the Scottish highlands here http://www.prog99.com