Torridon 5
- hiking scotland
I wake up early after a restless night. Someone snored so hard that my earplugs didn’t work. I boil a few eggs and make some sandwiches in preparation for a big day. Yesterday, I looked at Beinn Eighe, today I want to climb it if the conditions are right. The plan is to walk up the Coire Mhic Fhearchair, and if it clears up by then I’ll go up and walk the ridge and the two munros.
When I arrive at the car park it’s chucking it down, and I sit in the car for a while until the rain quietens down a bit. And off I go.
I get drenched by the rain and dried off by the wind twice before I finally reach the beautiful waterfall of Coire Mhic Fhearchair - a great water feature. It reminds by contrast of a very disappointing waterfall in Tasmania which had looked amazing in pictures, but lack of rain made it all thin and sad. No lack of rain here.
Climbing up alongside the waterfall I meet two guys who are also staying in the hostel. I think they’re a couple, and they remind me of another couple I once met walking by that disappoining waterfall in Tasmania - although those two were naked (click).
“Nothing prepares you for the sudden view of the Triple Buttress as Loch Coire Mhic Fhearchair is finally reached” is what the walk description says. Triple Buttress my arse. I am well prepared for the sudden view, but the Triple Buttress won’t show in the low clouds. The guys decide to turn back. I’m wavering, and then some of the clouds lift, and I can see the chute behind the loch which I’d need to climb up to get to the ridge, and it looks fun. I tell the guys I’m doing it. And walk off in the wrong direction. Oops.
The guys send me on my way, the other way around the loch, crossing the top of the waterfall first. This put them off, as the stepping stones are under water, and the water runs fast. But another group arrives, and I let them cross first. No one falls in, so I follow. They are a mountaineering club from Cambridge Uni and are looking quite confident and tell me they’re doing the ridge walk as well, so I decide to follow them for a bit more. And then I realise that they are not going for the chute, but straight up the first munro.
I leave them and scramble my way across a steep boulder field to reach the chute. The chute is very steep and full of crumbly scree, and I need to use my hands, but it doesn’t seem dangerous. Slipping might mean a bum-shuffle down, not a broken neck. It’s good fun really. Once up, I look over the very narrow ridge, expecting views, but only see clouds.
I walk along the ridge to the westernmost top, the first munro of the day, where I meet the Cambridge group, and we shake hands and say well done to each other.
When I arrive at the car park it’s chucking it down, and I sit in the car for a while until the rain quietens down a bit. And off I go.
I get drenched by the rain and dried off by the wind twice before I finally reach the beautiful waterfall of Coire Mhic Fhearchair - a great water feature. It reminds by contrast of a very disappointing waterfall in Tasmania which had looked amazing in pictures, but lack of rain made it all thin and sad. No lack of rain here.
Climbing up alongside the waterfall I meet two guys who are also staying in the hostel. I think they’re a couple, and they remind me of another couple I once met walking by that disappoining waterfall in Tasmania - although those two were naked (click).
“Nothing prepares you for the sudden view of the Triple Buttress as Loch Coire Mhic Fhearchair is finally reached” is what the walk description says. Triple Buttress my arse. I am well prepared for the sudden view, but the Triple Buttress won’t show in the low clouds. The guys decide to turn back. I’m wavering, and then some of the clouds lift, and I can see the chute behind the loch which I’d need to climb up to get to the ridge, and it looks fun. I tell the guys I’m doing it. And walk off in the wrong direction. Oops.
The guys send me on my way, the other way around the loch, crossing the top of the waterfall first. This put them off, as the stepping stones are under water, and the water runs fast. But another group arrives, and I let them cross first. No one falls in, so I follow. They are a mountaineering club from Cambridge Uni and are looking quite confident and tell me they’re doing the ridge walk as well, so I decide to follow them for a bit more. And then I realise that they are not going for the chute, but straight up the first munro.
I leave them and scramble my way across a steep boulder field to reach the chute. The chute is very steep and full of crumbly scree, and I need to use my hands, but it doesn’t seem dangerous. Slipping might mean a bum-shuffle down, not a broken neck. It’s good fun really. Once up, I look over the very narrow ridge, expecting views, but only see clouds.
I walk along the ridge to the westernmost top, the first munro of the day, where I meet the Cambridge group, and we shake hands and say well done to each other.
