South Shiel Ridge (East section)
The hostel was ship shape and Jen was going to man the fort (woman the fort?) so I headed over to the South Shiel Ridge to do the easternmost 4 Munros (Creag a’ Mhaim, Drium Shionnach, Aonach air Chrith and Maol Chinn-dearg) and have a wild camp – our first night apart since married life!
I sat in the van for a good 20 minutes staring up at the ridge trying to muster the motivation to set off up the long approach path, the ridge was covered in cloud but I hoped it would clear by the time I got up there. The plan was to set off late and get the Munro’s bagged just before the sunset and have a little camp on the ridge. I nearly just turned around and drove home but I eventually got going, almost…. I’d forgotten my socks, luckily I had spare pair, unfortunately, as I un-balled them I realised that Dylan had got to them before I had.
The approach path eventually zig zags up towards the first summit which was hard going as every alternate “Zig” was head long into a 45mph wind. The first two summits where just a cloudy grey haze but as I approached the third… the clouds cleared, the wind stopped, the sun came out… fantastic views made even better by the sudden revealing.
I eventually made camp on a little spur on the south side on the ridge overlooking the Loch Quoich Munros. This is when I realised I’d forgotten to pack my sleeping bag and worse of all, I brought the wrong gas for the stove so no cups of tea either! I thought my pack seemed light.
I got a few hours of sleep before the cold really kicked in, I lay there shivering for a few hours before I gave in. About 3 am I put my boots back on and went out into the clag to stamp around a bit and warm up. 10 minutes later the clouds drifted away to show a bright starry night and a cloud inversion all around. I spent the next few hours playing with my camera.
View to the north
The early morning moon.
Beats friday night TV.
–Matt
