Over The Hill

With a slight breeze beginning to clear the early morning mist from the tops of the mountains as we drove across Rannoch Moor and into Glen Coe we were hopeful that the weather would remain clear for us as we approached our start point at the forestry car park a short way along the road from Bridge of Coe; our destination for today, Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, the eastern Munro on the Aonach Eagach Ridge.

Our initial ascent up the steep rocky path to Tom Breac and onwards to the lower slopes of Cnap Glas was in the company of a couple of other groups as they headed towards the every popular Pap of Glencoe until, just above the 450m height, where we branched off, swinging south east towards Sgorr nam Fiannaidh.

The upper levels of this hillside are a mass of stones and rock into which what path there is disappears and then re-appears with frustrating regularity, so making for slow progress over this rough ground. However, there is ample compensation for your struggle as you stop and gaze at the views opening up over Loch Leven and onwards to Ardgour, not to forget the prominent peak of the Pap of Glencoe which dominates the scene beyond Cnap Glas.

At around 900m the rough rocky ascent ends and you can take a leisurely walk along a short and pleasant ridge before an easy climb to the rather large shelter cairn which marks the summit of Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, at 967m; a wonderful viewpoint from which to gaze along the rugged pinnacles of the Aonach Eagach and across Glen Coe to the mountainous slopes of Buachaille Etive Mor in the east to the Bidean nam Bian massif at the western end of the glen.

We had left the option open that, weather permitting, we would continue along the ridge and take in the top of Stob Coire Leith, and, so it was that we headed off on the descent from Sgorr nam Fiannaidh to the small bealach at the head of Coire Corcaig before making the relatively easy ascent on the broadening ridge to the summit of Stob Coire Leith, passing en route a number of happy scramblers having just completed the east to west traverse of the Aonach Eagach Ridge. Taking the extra time to complete this top was well rewarded with some stunning views along the ridge, and below, steeply down to the floor of Glen Coe. At one point, it was quite surreal as we watched a light aircraft flying a couple of hundred metres below us as it flew west to east following the road through Glen Coe.

A traverse of the Aonach Eagach not being on our agenda, we simply reversed our outbound route and returned via Sgorr nam Fiannaidh and it's rocky slopes to Tom Breac and onwards to the car park. One point of note on our return is that, as on a previous occasion earlier in the year, the descent is made that much easier as an obvious, rough scree path is clearly visible as you descend from the ridge through the rock and boulder strewn north west shoulder; interestingly enough, we stopped a few times on the descent, turned around to look back over the boulders, and, guess what, we could not make out the line of path we had just descended - Weird or what?

A great mountain, on a fine day, and in fine company - Thanks everyone.