The weather forecast was for heavy rain and strong winds spreading
across the North-West of Scotland early in the morning with cloud bases
around 400 metres. Despite this forecast it was a bright morning with
cloud levels well above the summits. The only thing that was accurate
about the forecast was the strong wind as we set off from the parking
area just west of Loch Glascarnoch at the Abhainn an Torrain Duibh.
We crossed the fence on the north side of the road and followed a boggy
path to the Abhainn a'Gharbhrain. This river was flowing fairly fast
due to additional water from snow melt. My client and I headed
upstream looking for a suitable crossing point and found a spot near
the outflow from Loch a'Gharbhrain, where the bed of the river had
smaller rocks, rather than the larger boulders downstream. The water
was half way to our knees but at least we were across and could now
concentrate on climbing this mountain as this river crossing is a
problem to Munro Baggers.
We climbed to the bealach north of Sron Liath, en-route spotting a
lizard its light colour blending in well with the dead grass. On the
bealach the wind was very strong so we tried to find some shelter on
the lee side of the hill as we headed towards the summit of Am
Faochagach. However the downside was that the snow was deep and soft
and at one point collapsed around me and I landed in a bog. My feet
were already wet so that didn't make a lot of difference other than
they were now rather cold. I extricated myself from the hole,
retraced our steps slightly before heading higher onto the ridge as it
was better fighting the wind than going into another bog.
On approaching the summit several snow buntings were feeding on the
bare sections of the hillside and took off and were blown away in the
wind. There was now some hail in the wind as the weather was starting
to deteriorate.
At the summit we had a quick look round at the surrounding mountains
including the remote Munro Seana Bhraigh which stood out well in the
darkening sky. We set off on the return journey, initially back along
the ridge, but to avoid the wind and the soft snow we came off the
ridge, descended west before traversing across to the Allt na h-Uidhe.
There were a few pools containing frogs but they soon dived into the
bog on our approach.
We followed the Allt na h-Uidhe to Loch a'Gharbhrain and the Abhainn
a'Gharbhrain, which looked a bit higher, but there was only one option
so we waded across the river, crossed the boggy ground and returned to
the start as it started to rain again.
Pictures can be viewed at:
http://www.caledoniahilltreks.com/galleries/am_faochagach_apr06/index.htm
Statistics at:
http://caledoniahilltreks.blogspot.com
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com