Ring of Steall (almost)

Sunday 15th October


What a contrast to yesterday's cloud and wind on the Easains.  The sky this morning was unbroken blue, with the hills appearing above a layer of mist.  Superb.  


(below) The Aonachs and Ben Nevis

Despite three consecutive days on the hill, this was too good a day to waste, so I set off to meet colleague Frank Frame at his cottage in Glen Nevis.  The plan - to complete the "ring of Steall".   

We parked at the head of the glen at 9.30, and set off up the lovely wooded track to Steall.  First obstacle - crossing the river on the wire bridge (right)!   


After that, the rest of the walk was child's play!


The path was a bit tricky round below the base of the falls, where we needed to cling on to some branches to avoid getting our feet wet or in the mud.

Soon, however, we were ascending steadily up a zig-zag path in the north coire of An Gearanach.  Talking so much that I didn't really notice how much we were climbing on the superbly engineered stalkers' path, until we came out onto the shoulder above Coire a'Mhaill, at about 600m.  A superb viewpoint for Ben Nevis (left).


A short steep final section of ridge, and we were standing on the summit (12 noon).

The hard work was now behind us, so we could enjoy the views and the scramble (easy enough_ along the rough ridge to An Garbhanach.  


A short descent (120m) to the bealach at 857m, then a similar climb up rough curving ridge to Stob Coire A' Chairn (1pm).  


So here I am (right) on Munro number 200!




We decided to keep going to the next top, Am Bodach ("the old man"), before stopping for lunch (2pm).  Munro 201!


From Am Bodach the two Bodachs(!) continued down the gentler ridge and round onto Sgorr an Iubhair.  The plan had been to continue along the Devil's Ridge to Sgurr a' Mhaim - but Frank's knee (getting stiff) and Frank's wife (expecting us back by 4.30pm) meant we had to leave that for another day.  Instead we descended to the wee lochan, then made a rapid descent down the path through Coire Mhusgain.  We were only 15 minutes late!  ... and exhausted!


Superb day.


(written 15/03/10)
PS  Anne and I returned to climb Sgurr A' Mhaim and the Devil's Ridge on an equally splendid day in July 2008.  I'll get round to describing that in due course!