[Trip Index] [Munro Index] [Home] 4th August 2008   Sgurr nan Coireachan Garbh Chioch Mhor Sgurr na Ciche Map The day started at the bunkhouse in Roy Bridge where I cobbled together some cheese on toast and a bowl of porridge to set me up for the day. I left at about 8.00 and drove back to exactly the same parking spot as yesterday at the western end of Loch Arkaig. This time, however, I intended taking the bike. It was only a 2.5 mile ride but that meant 5 miles less to walk and this was a long trip. Back at the same start point as yesterday It was a reasonable day weatherwise - ok in the glens but little wind to push the light cloud off the tops so up there was to be little reward by way of views. I set off at 9.00, cycling along a very rough track and was soon wondering if I was really saving anything going by bike. Of course the payback is generally on the return journey when it's mostly downhill and quick. For now though I was sweating and straining a bit. Beware I passed yesterday's departure point at Glendessarry Lodge and carried on for another mile, even rougher if possible, to Upper Glendessarry. This grand-sounding location comprises one house, which was adorned with the welcoming sign: 'Private. Keep Out'. It was the end of the road, however, so I dumped the bike behind some reeds and took to the boot. A boggy track led round the back of the privacy-obsessed and then cut along the valley side. After a while it met the northern side of a forestry plantation and continued west for another mile. Then almost immediately after crossing a large stream, the Allt Coire nan Uth, I noticed a cairn marking the point where a smaller path led off north up the slopes of Sgurr nan Coireachan. The boggy track It seemed to be less than the couple of hundred metres from the crossing mentioned by Cameron but I took it anyway and it proved the right thing. The ascent was absolutely gruelling. Maybe I was still tired from the previous day's trip and needed a day off but this was real hard work. It was a consistently steep trudge all the way from about 200 metres to the top at 953 metres. The hillside was grassy with some rocky outcrops and the path was mostly muddy steps formed by the plodding feet of numerous previous walkers. It was a bit like a mud staircase in places but tiring none the less. I ended up having rests every couple of dozen paces and by the time I got to the top (12.00) I was wondering if I'd be able to continue to do the other two. Still, if I didn't I'd have to come back and gain all that height a second time - which didn't seem a very attractive proposition at this point. Nearing the top although actually it continues further up behind this. At last. The cairn on Sgurr nan Coireachan   I sent Trisha a progress text and set off along the rocky ridge where for some inexplicable reason someone in days gone past had constructed a low, dry stone wall. It was only about 3 foot high but must have involved a prodigious amount of effort to build it. I have no idea why anyone would want to. Along the ridge the route was rough with various ups and downs and it seemed to take a long time to gain the interim peak of Garbh Chioch Bheag. After that, however, a more level stretch made for easier progress and at the end of that bit a slight rise led up to the summit of Garbh Chioch Mhor (14.15). The way forward to Garbh Chioch Mhor showing the dry stone wall At the summit of Garbh Chioch Mhor   I was walking in cloud now so apart from occasional glimpses there were no great scenic views to enjoy. It was still dry though and clear enough to see the way ahead. I seemed to have got my second wind by now so I carried on along the path - no navigation problems here - and descended towards the col between Garbh Chioch Mhor and Sgurr na Ciche. This col is called the Feadan na Ciche or 'the whistle of the Peak', according to Cameron's guidebook. On the way down to the col I met a party of four - a bloke about 45 and three 20 year olds - who were doing the circuit the other way round. As I stopped to speak to them the clouds parted briefly and the very daunting, dark mass of Sgurr na Ciche appeared directly in front of me. The bloke said not to worry though, that it wasn't that bad and that there was a path all the way up it. Sure enough there was a path, extremely steep in parts, mostly shingly and loose soil plus some rock slopes. Not too long though as the col was at the 850 metres level and the summit was at 1040 metres. I got to the top at 15.15; it was a bare, rocky place with a cairn and a windbreak. By the windbreak I saw what looked to be the base for a trig point but if that was what had been there once it was long gone now. The summit of Sgurr na Ciche. Not a lot different from the last one, eh. Sgurr na Ciche as seen from Knoydart last September I took a couple of photos of the cloud for posterity and took myself back to the col. Here there was a path leading SW through a cliff-lined cleft in the mountainside, a gully down which tumbled a small stream. The way was steep and rocky and hemmed in on both sides by the dark, overhanging cliffs whilst underfoot the ground was either loose shale or wet, slippery and unstable rocks. The gully I picked my way carefully downhill and once past the cliffs came out of the the cloud to see a great empty landscape of hills, rocks and grassy expanses stretching out before me. The way was to bear left, rounding the cliffs on that side, and then making SE down the hillside below Garbh Chioch Mhor, heading for the path along Glen Dessarry. After a short while this was made easier if not more scenic by a double-track formed by some off-road vehicle - probably to cart off the dead deer after someone's shot them. Looking back up the gully. Steeper than it looks. Lower down and approaching the forested bit beyond which lies the bike It made the going easier anyway, although it was still boggy in parts. At length I reached the forestry plantation and the spot where I'd branched off up Sgurr nan Coireachan. After that it was just a plod back along the original route to pick up the bike then rattle my way back to the car (18.30). I couldn't get a mobile signal at the top of #2 or #3, nor in the glen and it was a half-hour drive back along the Loch Arkaig road. Eventually managed to ring Trisha at 19.30 just as she was getting worried. No matter how delightful it was I didn't want yet another vegetable tagine so I went to the Little Chef in Spean Bridge and had a veggy burger and chips plus apple pie and custard. (After having another tomato soup pick-me-up first at the bunkhouse - well I'd used up a lot of calories!). Then a pint of Three Sisters at the Stronlossit. The energy loss I experienced may have been partly down to dehydration the day before. I'd taken 2 75cl bottles of Lucozade Still Orange and had also had draughts from suitable streams en route, but in the evening after a bowl of soup, two pints of beer and a mug of coffee I still didn't need to pee - when I went before bed barely a splash came out. It had all been absorbed straight into the body it seems.