Liathach - Spidean a'Choire Leith
13 August 2007
It was a wet and windy morning as we drove west through Glen Torridon,
so different from my last walk here in June. In fact today's client
was due to come on that walk but had to pull out due to injury.
We parked a vehicle near Torridon village at the point where we would
descend from the Toll Ban and returned to east of Glen Cottage. Here
there is a parking area on the south side of the road capable of
taking several cars.
A few metres east of the car park, on the opposite side of the road, a
small cairn marked the start of the path to Liathach. Initially it
followed the west side of the Allt an Doire Ghairbh but we soon had to
cross this stream, which was in spate, as the upgraded path, continued
on the east side of the burn.
The ascent included a few easy scrambles over some rocks before we
reached Toll a'Meitheach where it was very windy with lots of water
rushing off the mountainside. The path deteriorated from here onwards
as we continued into Coire Liath Mhor and the cloud. A couple of
small landslides had eroded the path even further. At Coire Liath
Mhor we changed direction towards the bealach west of the Munro Top,
Stuc a'Choire Dhuibh Bhig. This path was just a stream of water with
stones being washed away by the force of the rainwater. Scrambling
over some of the rocks meant water up our jacket sleeves.
The ridge was eventually reached and it was surprisingly less windy.
I hadn't expected to get this far in these conditions but with the
wind lighter we decided to continue and walked west along the ridge.
A couple of small tops were crossed before we reached the Munro Top
Stob a'Coire Liath. This was followed by a short descent before the
final climb to the summit of the Munro, Spidean a'Choire Leith which
nearer the summit involved scrambling over a few large boulders.
It was now decision time whether to continue along the ridge, over the
Pinnacles, and onto the second Munro Mullach an Rathain. Initially
the wind on the summit wasn't too strong but after a few minutes it
strengthened and gave us a bit of a buffeting so the decision was
made. The risk was too high so we headed back along the ridge.
It was now a bit windier on the ridge but eventually we reached the
path used on the upward route and commenced the descent to Coire Liath
Mhor. The path was still awash and at points Sue had to sit in the
water to get over some of the rocky sections, a new experience for
her. On reaching the Coire the wind was very strong with spray from
the burns blowing in all directions including upwards. We had
obviously made the correct decision as the wind was now definitely
stronger although the cloud base was higher.
The descent continued back to the A896 and thereafter we had to
retrieve the car we had deposited near Torridon village, which had
been a bit optimistic on these conditions.
There are no photos on this occasion due to poor weather conditions.
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com