Invergarry Lodge

Archive for the ‘Hill Bagging’ Category

Creag Megaidh Trio

Last training session for the LAMM next week was a wee trip round the Creag Meggy trio. 16 miles, 1400 metres of ascent, three Munro ticks and better weather than forecast….all in 3 hours 20 minutes – what a great way to spend an afternoon.

Not much to say about it really, it follows a straight forward route (how far is it to the summit from window? Blimey!), we saw a few others on the plateau and the running was good.  Anyway, a few pictures for your delectation….

–Matt

Sun, shorts and hail on Sgurr Ghiubhsachan

High winds? Hail stone? There’s nothing else for it except to don your shorts and go running in the hills. Ian and I where planning a lowish route (nothing over 600m) starting from near Glenfinnan but we ended up taking in Sgurr Ghiubhsachan at 849m. Although the name of the hill will mean little to most people, it is probably one of the most photographed hills in Scotland, it peeps up along the shores of Loch Shiel behind the popular Glenfinnan monument…

Anyway, apart from some hail as we set off, a dusting of fresh snow and some ferocious winds at the top the weather was pretty kind to us considering the forecast. The hill itself was great – rocky and rugged with great views of the surrounding area and not another person in sight!

The path on the way in was pretty wet and boggy but it proved to be nothing compared to what I found on the way down – I very nearly lost my shoes, thanks for help Ian!

–Matt

Sgurr Elide Mor and the two Binneins

Me and new official Team Invergarry running partner Ian headed up to the eastern Mamores to bag Sgurr Elide Mor, Binnein Beag and Binnein Mor.

In brief the route is about 20km and has two steep bouldery ascents up Sgurr Elide Mor and Binnein Beag with a very steep scree descent from Sgurr Elide Mor inbetween, then a suprisingly good, slightly scrambley route directly up Binnein Mor and a great run steadily back down to Kinlochleven. Oh, and some nice views…..

Na Gruagaichean

Sgurr Elide Mor

Ian approaching the summit on Binnein Mor

The view back to Loch Leven

Great day out, rain held off and three new Munro ticks for me.  Lovely stuff, cheers Ian.

–Matt

Ben Nevis and the CMD Arete

Making the most of the fantastic weather we’ve been having up here I escaped the hostel chores for a quick run up Ben Nevis via the CMD Arete. A fantastic day for it, the normal Ben Nevis crowds where elsewhere after the busy bank holiday weekend – I saw 6 people on the arete and no more then a couple of dozen on the summit.

From the car park, up to the halfway lochan, split off the path and head round to the North Face, I ended up not far from the CIC hut where I headed straight up the very steep slopes to Carn Mor Dearg, scramble round the arete, up to the Ben summit and down the tourist track to the car park, 3 hours 20 minutes. This is a fantastic route around the UK’s highest mountain which enables you to see it’s best side and get away from the masses, highly recommended.

–Matt

Please note, if you are unsure about your skills on the mountains, let us know and we will put you in contact with a guide.

A Tactical Retreat from the Forcan Ridge

I’d been told that there wasn’t much snow left on the South Shiel ridge so Rick and I devised a vague plan of heading up the Forcan Ridge to the Saddle and then heading east along the South Shiel ridge until we got tired, we’d then head off down one the smaller ridges back to civilisation.

We only made it about halfway along the Forcan Ridge – we were in our running gear, no axes or crampons  – when we decided we’d better back track before we got into difficulty. We knew we could down climb everything we’d covered so far but we had arrived at a steep icy section that didn’t look fun to reverse and we knew from previous experience that there is a hairy traverse later on where crampons would be very useful. We decided today wasn’t our day to appear on Channel 5’s Highland Emergency, besides, Rick had to be back for 5pm so there wasn’t time to hang around for a helicopter rescue.
We back-tracked to the bealach and then headed up to Sgurr na Sgine, the next Munro to the east, and then continued to the next hill, Sgurr a’ Bhac Chaolais, at least we would have done if Rick hadn’t talked me into traversing round it on a ledge he’d spotted from the previous summit. We traversed halfway round but ended up with no option but to ascend to the summit anyway, still we got to see a side of the mountain most people don’t …the steep north side!

We continued up to the next Munro, Creag nan Damh, where we fueled up on homemade coconut ice (thanks to Rick’s good lady wife) before backtracking west for 2 km and heading down the good path from Bealach Duibh Leac for a steady (if a little icy) 4km back to the car.

Nice to be out on the hills again after what feels like a very long time, especially on a great blue sky day like today. I could get used to having a grandma around to help look after things – thanks Mum!

–Matt

Winter hill bagging

While Jenny is away with Alby I’m supposed to be catching up on hostel jobs (room 4 decorated: check, wet wall one of the showers: check, play hunt the leak under the house: check (kind of), get the kitchen ready for the big redecoration, er, no, I was going to but… then it snowed and it looked all sunny and the hills where calling and Dylan needed a walk anyway so I figured the afternoon would be best spent up a mountain (or two).

Dyls and I headed off down to the Loch Quoich Munros, Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach. If you haven’t done these hills, you should, you really are missing out. At the very least, go for a drive past them, a 25 mile dead end road to no-where through great scenery, marvellous.

We set off late so we got the late winter sun lighting up the hills which made these great hills even better, the standard route makes use of a couple of superb stalkers paths so I knew we’d be ok if it got dark. We only saw one other party who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves and enjoyed petting an ever excitable Dylan, oh, and we found a few stragglers on the road who we gave a lift to the hotel.

Snow and cold weather is forecast is set to continue for a few weeks so hopefully I’ll get chance to be out again soon. Theres a few more photos over here which may get added to shortly.

–Matt

Fell Running: It has its ups and downs

6…7….8? I’m not really sure how many times I’ve been up the Loch Lochy Munros but Dylan (hostel labrador extraordinare) and I can happily add another one on to the total today. The mountain forecast was good but the head out the door forecast was less so – the weather eventually started to brighten up about 2 o’clockish so we seized the opportunity for a quick run.

Now, I don’t claim to be a good runner (barely even a runner most of the time) and am not particularly fast uphill but it is such great fun running down a mountain, just letting your legs go and your feet find their own way…it’s easier to keep going than it is to try and stop…it makes the going up worth the effort. Not much beats running down hill….except maybe when the hill is covered in lovely soft but slightly squeaky snow – think perfect snowman making snow. That’s what it was like today – every step is cushioned and it doesn’t hurt when you fall over, fantastic stuff,  and we where almost rewarded with a view.

Dyls and I had a great time this afternoon, he was as good as gold…that’s two hill outings in a row he hasn’t embarrassed me…anyway, I’m glad the snow is properly back on the hills, hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze another day out soon.

–Matt

(P.S. If anyone is interested..the snow is down to about 550m and in many places is a good foot deep.)

A wet and grey “Brothers of Kintail”

I’ve got another hill to add to the “Hills that I can’t find a decent path up” list…Rich and I (and the dog) headed up to the Brothers of Kintail on what was supposed to be a decent weather day. I’ve done these hills before but we had two cars so devised a linear route along the ridge but unfortunately we completely failed to find the correct path up to the ridge and ended up slogging our way up a very steep and very arduous hillside to get to the ridge line, probably serves us right for setting off in the dark (photo hunting).  For future reference…you want this path not this one which goes to the Sisters of Kintail to the west.

Anyway, the promised weather never materialized and we spent the day in cloud, the cameras never came out the bags apart from once so I had something to post on here and even then it was only with my phone..

Anyway, despite the less than desirable weather we still had a nice day out in the hills, Dylan was as good as gold and hasn’t moved since we got back (bliss!) and Rich and I decided we’d enter our first mountain marathon next year…better get training!

–Matt

A last Munro (Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich) blog **Guest Blog**

We had the Stocket Hillwalking Club in recently to celebrate one of their members’ last Munro. They had great weather as they headed down Loch Quoich to bag Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich, in fact, the weather was so good some of the club headed back down to the same area the next day to bag the hills next door, Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach.

Looks like they all had a great time, Check out that second picture – hill bagging champagne celebrations in fine style!

Check out these excellent photos taken by Stocket member and Invergarry Lodge twitter friend Nick Bramhall…

Hope you all had a good time and big thanks to Nick for the photos, Nick can be found on twitter here and his website here.

–Matt

Early Morning Munro Bagging

After looking after the hostel (and Alby, the dog, the cats and the chickens) all weekend whilst Jen was away (how good does that teapot look?) it was finally my turn to do something. We (I had to take Dylan) headed out to a couple of Munros north of Glen Shiel early one morning to try and get some photos.

It was a perfectly clear moonlit night/morning as we left the van near the Cluanie Inn and headed up to A’Chralaig and along to Mullach Fraoch-Choire. It wasn’t until we hit the ridge proper that the full effect of the bitter wind hit us, it was a case of head down and plough on to the massive cairn atop A’Chralaig for shelter. I could see the sky beginning to glow over towards Ben Nevis but knew we had plenty of time before we’d be taking any photos.

After half an hour of sitting at the cairn with all my extra layers on sheltering from the bitter wind, one foot absolutely freezing having got soaked earlier on, I was wondering why on earth I was sitting on top of a freezing cold snowy mountain at 7.30 in the morning when I could be at home cosily tucked up in bed. Just as the urge to head down was almost unbearable the sun hit the mountain across the glen, the cold was soon forgotten as I grabbed the camera and ambled along the ridge taking photos of the mountains as they came alive in the sun.

An hour or so later as we headed back to the van down a fantastically warm autumnal glen listening to the deer rut, the cold and the doubts from the top long forgotten…could there be a better way to spend a morning?

–Matt

PS. I feel obliged to remind you we are now on facebook