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Sgurr a'
Mhaoraich was part of a two day trip around Loch Quoich with Kevin
McKeown and Michael Coffield, two members of MunroMagic.com. As
displayed by my mountain map, I hadn't climbed at all in the Western Highlands
until this point, so
had little personal experience of the area. My impressions of Loch Quoich
were a combination of magnificence and desolation and I was probably
pretty right in that regard. Different in
character to Loch Quoich and at the end of a 22 mile single track road,
Kinloch Hourn was another incredible place.
Bounded by
steep mountain walls on the very edge of the
Knoydart peninsula, it isn't difficult to imagine in the depths of
winter, cut off from the world. Knoydart is sure barren, rough and
remote, but it's beauty is mind blowing (what I saw of it). It's
probably not therefore surprising
that I highly anticipate exploring Knoydart further - all things for the
future...
I met Kevin McKeown on the A82 very early on the 25th September. Pink
Floyd accompanied us up the A82 which sat well with me; there's few
bands I prefer to Pink Floyd. Following a ten minute stop at the Fort William Morrison's, we
headed northwards alongside Loch Lochy, then up the A87 from Invergarry
and finally onto the single track road leading to Kinloch Hourn.
Sgurr a' Mhaoraich
First impressions of the place were positive - it didn't take long for
me to realise that there was more to Loch Quoich than lifeless
desolation although I'd suspected that anyway. We crossed the bridge
over Loch Quoich, parking at the start of a stalkers track leading up
Sgurr a' Mhaoraich. It was cold, very windy and occasionally damp, but
spirits were high and the two of us and Rupert, Kev's dog, set off. For
now we were to follow a stalkers path and although we couldn't see much
of the mountain, it would reveal itself as we gained a better
perspective by climbing higher. We followed the path onto Bac nan
Canaichean, a broad arm and then up to the ridge above. Even with the
summits in cloud, views were spectacular and a final pull brought us up
to the summit ridge beside Sgurr Coire nan Eiricheallach.
I've always gone to subsidiary tops when I can, so took the opportunity
to go to the summit of Eiricheallach, a Corbett top. From here, what
glimpses of the summit ridge we saw were sharp and narrow, but never
subsequently never involved much scrambling. The sharp bits were
bypassed by a path and although they might make a good scramble on a dry
day, we stuck to the bypass path on this occasion. It wasn't a day to be
hanging onto steep crags for the sake of it and the rock was damp anyway.
Then near the summit, we took a 15 minute break on the sheltered side of
the ridge, then ten more minutes of walking brought us to a large cairn
which crowned the top. There was only wind and mist up here, but at
least we'd climbed another Munro. So we left the summit following an
extended break and headed south back to Loch Quoich, following a broad
ridge before descending into Coire nan Eiricheallach. We saw plenty
stags in the corrie, though they kept their distance.
On trackless wet ground, it had been more difficult to make progress,
but we picked up a path which led to the single track road. Then nearly
two kilometres of walking by the road brought us back to the car.
Later...
Having done our days walking, we first of all went to Kinloch Hourn, and
followed the track to Barrisdale Bay for a couple of minutes to get a
better view of the loch around a headland. A cup of tea from the shop
would have done us nicely but it wasn't open, so we got back in the car.
Driving back in the direction we came (there's no other way to go), we
set up camp on a patch of ground beneath the Quoich dam, got a small
fire going and spent a comfy evening with Dark Side of the Moon playing
from the car. Just how a night should be spent. I fell asleep early and
disappeared into my tent at about 11pm having had a very nice night (if
smoky) beside a fire.
Michael arrived the next morning, and we climbed Gleouraich and Spidean
Mialach in the afternoon. Report is
here.
Kinloch Hourn
Loch Quoich
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