Day 7: 29/05/2015 A'Chailleach, Carn Sgulain (2 Munros)
These are two Munros on a long circuit of 3 described by Walk Highlands. We did the there and back route to Carn Sgulain via A'Chailleach from Glen Banchor, just outside Newtonmore. The glen itself makes for a very scenic short drive. We started walking at 9am and got back to the car at 5pm having seen no other person all day. The first part of the ascent was straightforward on a stalkers track. But then we had to cross a stream on rocks and it proved slightly tricky to find a suitable place to do this. The route then ascended a boggy moss and heather slope for a considerable distance during which we were exposed to 20 minutes of heavy and very wet sleet driven into our faces by a moderately strong wind. Much of the rest of the fairly steep ascent to A'Chailleach was in sunshine. At the top the wind was strong but a cairn with a windbreak gave us shelter while we sat out the second wintery shower of the day - this time snow being driven horizontally across the summit. This went on for another 20 minutes with snow settling on the ground around us. We were wondering whether we would be able to continue when the sun reappeared and our way on to the next summit became clear. This involved negotiating a steep valley which held large patches of snow and further on some fairly firm peat hags. The sun and the views stayed with us to the unimpressive summit of Carn Sgulain. We returned by the same route, which involved ascending back to the summit of A'Chailleach, reaching the wind shelter just as another snow shower hit. The descent also involved getting the waterproof layer on and off several times as the weather varied from fine sunshine to heavy rain. We sat out one of these rain showers in an old mountain hut we happened to be passing at the time. We found an easier place to cross the stream on the way out. When the sun shone the views of the mountains all around was very impressive throughout the route.
A'Chailleach & Carn Sgulain
Distance: ~15km, Ascent: ~800m A'Chailleach summit altitude: 930m Carn Sgulain summit altitude: 920m Wildlife highlights: Broad-bordered White Underwing - a first for me - at ~900m as we started our descent of A'Chailleach Mountain Hare - 2 together on snowy patches as we descended Carn Sgulain. Ptarmigan - one male on each mountain near the summit (each presumably had a female on a nest nearby) |