This is the end of my summer holidays so I had to make the most of the last few days of fine weather with a few outings. On Saturday I headed over to Coigach – Achilitibuie to be precise – to do a hill walk on some of the fine peaks in that area. We decided on a route from the Pocket Mountains ‘North Highlands’ book called ‘The Seven Peaks of Coigach’. The weather was unbelievable and the ‘knife-edge arete’ at the end is straightforward, with a clear path to follow which avoids any potential difficulties, though the descent off the ridge is steep on loose powdery rock. If you’re planning to follow this route, however, don’t expect to complete it in the 5hr 20mins the book suggests – we took 7.5hrs and we’re not that slow!
The day before we’d been out on the bikes in Tomintoul on another glorious day. This was a route I’d been planning for some time and, though it’s only 21 miles, is a great outing to explore the area without having to pedal over the Lecht! I’ll have to have a go at that one soon though…
The Fannaichs were my playground on Thursday when I headed up Sgurr Breac and A’ Chailleach, two Munros on the western edge of the range. The weather didn’t quite hit the promised blue skies and sunshine but the tops just about cleared by the time I reached them. It’s a long trek up the glen before you strike off up the ridge – about 4 miles to the pass, where there’s a nice shelter built between a couple of boulders – then a well worn path winds its way up to the first Munro then along the ridge. I went down by Sron na Goibhre then off into the corrie, my only problem being the new deer fence which ruined my plan of contouring round and gradually descending below Leitir Fhearna. I was left with the choice of a steep fence-side drop to a stile well below, or heading upwards and hoping for another stile. I took option B and was sorely disappointed! I ended up truding up and down beside the fence then above Leitir Fhearna to find a little path than finally descended to the bridge near the start.