Over The Hill

Last Saturday we had taken the "Mountain Trail" footpath from the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve car park at Glas Leitir on the shores of Loch Maree and climbed to the cairn and viewpoint at Leathad Buidhe (not to be confused with the Leathad Buidhe at the base of the northern spur of Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe) from where we had observed the twin Corbetts of Meall a'Ghiuthais and Ruadh Stac Beag, and contemplated the best approach for a climb to the summit of Ruadh Stac Beag. We did even consider making the climb there and then, but, thankfully as it transpired, we decided to concentrate our efforts on Sunday and Maoile Lunndaidh, and leave Ruadh Stac Beag for our return trip this weekend.

What we did decide though, was that we would start our climb from the larger Beinn Eighe Visitor Centre car park just outside Kinlochewe and take the Pony Track from the Visitor Centre as it ascends the hillsides above the Allt Sguabaidh and heads towards the very wide and desolate bealach between Meall a'Ghiuthais and Ruadh Stac Beag. This well defined and maintained track makes for a relatively moderate start before the real work begins.

At around the 350m height, the track passes through a broken gate in a high deer fence, and then drops down into a gully to cross a small stream before rising to repeat the process for a second gully and stream. As the path climbed out from the second gully we left the Pony Track and headed southwest over the hillside, initially through deep heather troughs which then gave way to rough stone and grass, and eventually to a moonscape of pure boulders.

We were heading for the, as yet unseen, bealach at the base of Ruadh Stac Beag and Sgurr Ban, and as we drew closer, the views ahead of the mist shrouded grey scree and rock cliffs of Sgurr Ban and the huge corrie surrounding Loch an Tuill Bhain presented an almost moonscape scene. The gradient over this section was relatively easy, however, the extremely rocky ground underfoot required some care in moving over, and so progress was not quite as quick as the distance and height gained might suggest.

Having left Kinlochewe in early morning sunshine, with the majority of summits clearly visible the cloud had gradually built up all around us as the morning progressed and by the time we were approaching the bealach we were skirting the cloud base, and it was obvious that our final climb to the summit would be in thick cloud.

From the highest point of the bealach, at around 700m height and just a few metres east of the small Lochan Uaine, we turned north to face the wall of very large boulders that makes up the southern shoulder of Ruadh Stac Beag, and over which we would need to clamber for the final 200m of ascent. And clamber we did, using hand, feet and anything that came to hand to haul ourselves over this massive pile of rocks as we made our way to the summit plateau. A short, easy scramble from the rocks up a final small craggy section took us onto a cloud covered summit plateau of rock slabs, a joy to walk across compared with what we had been on since leaving the Pony Track. A short walk across the plateau and we were soon at the summit cairn. A brief photo call, and then we backtracked a little to a small dip in the plateau where we huddled down out of a fairly strong wind to have a very welcome lunch break.

The steep broken crags and scree slopes on all but the southern ridge of Ruadh Stac Beag dictate that the descent from the summit is best achieved by retracing the ascent route - over the boulders! And so it was that we set off once again to tackle this mass of rocks and boulders, only this time in descent through the cloud base towards the lochans in the bealach below. Almost on cue, as we left the bealach behind and began our walk back to the Pony Track, the clouds began to disperse and once again clear the summits around us. Ah well - some you win and some you lose.

This was another great day in the hills on a very demanding and interesting mountain - Thanks everyone, enjoyed the company.