Beinn Liath Mhor and Sgorr Ruadh
7 October 2007
This was Frances's penultimate and then final Munro after fourteen
years of hill walking. It was also her second attempt at ascending
these mountains as previously strong winds had prevented her from
getting onto Beinn Liath Mhor's east ridge.
A lay-by on the south side of the A890 Achnasheen to Lochcarron road
opposite the private road to Achnashellach Station is a suitable
parking spot. From here we walked to the railway station, crossed
the railway line and followed the signposted route through the forest
onto the path on the east side of the River Lair. It was cool after
a touch of ground frost with some mist floating about. There were
obviously several stags in the area as we could hear them roaring.
The path was followed until it split at a height of around 370 metres
and we took the right hand path which led to the foot of the south-
east ridge of Beinn Liath Mhor. This was followed by a relatively
steep climb on an eroded path which took us to the boulders
surrounding the 876 summit which we crossed to reach the cairn.
Unfortunately the cloud had lowered and was now covering the higher
summits.
Beinn Liath Mhor's undulating ridge was followed and here we saw some
ptarmigan, heard the roar of the stags in the glens below and were
eventually overtaken by a lone walker who headed into the cloud. We
followed him but never saw this walker again. The summit of Beinn
Liath Mhor was reached where we had our lunch.
After lunch we headed for the bealach with Sgorr Ruadh. This is more
complicated than the map showed especially in poor visibility as there
are lots of rocks to avoid. However there are a few lochans which
assist in navigation. The descent to the first lochan was over loose
rocks before changing direction and heading for the second lochan
which involved finding the gully where a walker's path had been
created. This path is steep and eroded and took us to the second
lochan from where we traversed round the east side of the 769 point
and clear of the low cloud. The path was muddy in places but once
on the south side of the 769 point it descended to the third lochan at
the Bealach Coire Lair where the path from Coire Lair was joined.
The path was only used for a few metres before we left it and climbed
a grassy section onto the stony north-west ridge of Sgorr Ruadh. We
had earlier seen another couple of walkers who were behind us
searching for the descent to the second lochan but they never caught
up and we later spotted them descending the path into Coire Lair.
The cloud started to be break up as we climbed the north-west ridge of
Sgorr Ruadh and the sun tried to make an appearance but unfortunately
it didn't last long enough for us to reach the summit. The final
climb was over some rocks before the large summit cairn was reached
and Frances summitted her 284th Munro.
I took a few photographs to mark the occasion and the new Munroist
received a couple of phone calls before we descended towards Loch
a'Bhealaich Mhoir. There were traces of a path but the descent was
wet in places and had some rocks to avoid. We heard the stags again
but never saw anything due to the cloud. We walked round the west
side of Loch a'Bhealaich Mhoir and over some rough ground to the
stalker's path below Fuar Tholl.
We descended the stalker's path and lower down crossed the River Lair
where fortunately the water wasn't too high. Once on the other side
a short climb led us to the path and the route we used in the morning
which we followed back to the start.
I then drove Frances to a village near Beauly where she was having a
champagne dinner to celebrate her achievement in ascending all 284
Munros.
Time taken - 10 hours.
Distance - 12 kilometres.
Height climbed - 1190 metres.
Photographs taken on walk can be viewed here:
http://www.caledoniahilltreks.com/gallery07/beinn_liath_mhor_oct07/index.htm
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com