Over The Hill

Once again I was lucky enough to join the Carn Dearg MC on their weekend meet, this time at Roy Bridge, where, on the Friday evening, 13 of us settled in for the weekend at the Grey Corries Lodge Bunkhouse, probably not the most salubrious of establishments, but why should that distract from a good weekend's walking.

For the Saturday we (Alan, Lawrie, Lindsay, Janet and myself) had planned to do the high level ridge circuit of Carn Liath, Stob Poite Coire Ardair and Creag Meagaidh. However, the MWIS warned of winds in excess of 50mph and heavy rain showers throughout the day, and so we made the decision to miss out Carn Liath, and instead approach the higher levels via the more sheltered route along the Allt Coire Ardair to Lochan a'Choire and then via 'the window' onto the high ground. Kate, of Carn Dearg MC, decided to join us for the start, but would leave us just beyond Aberarder and take the high level route to include Carn Liath with the intention of meeting us at Stob Poite Coire Ardair.

As forecast, the weather was pretty foul as we made our way along the well maintained National Nature Reserve path from Aberarder through the sparsely scattered birch woods on the long, but relatively easy, ascent towards the towering cliffs of Coire Ardair which dominate the approach to the Lochan a'Choire. At this point the cloud-base was hovering around the 700m height, with intermittent gaps when it would rise to around 900m when we were presented with a clear view of the climb to our exit point through 'the window', nestling some 330m higher where the gap forms an almost perfect 'V' in the hillside.

The initial climb from the lochan is over steep grassy slopes on a narrow and well worn path which soon deteriorates into a mass of rocks, boulders and occasional areas of scree as you head towards the final steep section before it eventually levels out to the narrow bealach that is 'The Window'.

From the bealach, it was a short ascent north east over gentle slopes to our first summit, Stob Poite Coire Ardair, 1054m. And right on cue, with perfect timing, Kate, whom we had last seen heading off towards Carn Liath, re-appeared just as we were making our way to the summit, from where she joined us for the remainder the day. It was not a day for taking lunch at the summit, and so we retraced our steps down to the bealach and found a small hollow in which to huddle out of the wind, but alas, not the rain, to take our lunch break.

We departed the bealach for the second time heading south up steeper, and rockier slopes until we eventually reached the wide plateau that rises gently over grassy slopes, curving south west towards the knoll atop of which sits 'Mad Megs Cairn'. Visibility was not great at this point, and Mad Meg suddenly loomed out of the gloom slightly to our right. A few short steps and we were alongside the cairn and setting our compasses for the final short stretch uphill on the narrowing shoulder towards the summit cairn of Creag Meagaidh, 1128m, and my 50th Munro.

Two summits done, and now for the return. We retraced our steps back to Mad Megs Cairn from where we took a direct compass bearing across the wide plateau to the 1071m Puist Coire Ardair where the ridge narrows and from which you can get a great birds eye view of Lochan a'Choire as the cliffs drop dramatically away from the edge of the ridge. We continued to descend along the ridge line and followed its curve towards the rocky 1000m top of Sron a'Ghoire, at which point the cloud base started to rise, and for the first time today, the rain began to ease a little.

We left Sron a'Ghoire and started our descent over some very steep and rocky slopes as we headed generally south east towards Aberarder and a rather elusive footbridge which would take us over the Allt Dubh. From about the 600m height, we could clearly see where we wanted to be, but just the nature of the lower slopes meant that it was a rather winding approach through firstly heather clad slopes, then bracken and finally some rough scrub land. With the footbridge surrounded by trees, and no discernable path on the west bank, it was not until we were within a few metres of the bridge that it final came into view. Once over the bridge, it was then a very pleasant walk along one of the NNR nature trails through some very old woodlands of scattered Alder trees and back to our start point at the NNR car park.

Despite the weather, this was a great walk, and the fact that we still have Carn Liath to climb means that we can come back again - maybe even on a sunny day!

Wonderful - Thanks everyone; looking forward to tomorrow and the two Carn Deargs.