Stationed in Tulloch - Photo Gallery

It was a fine sunny day as I drove up to Scotland but by the time I got to Glen Coe it was dark. There were flecks of snow in the air but it stayed dry until I got to Station Lodge at Tulloch to join the A+ members of Linlithgow Ramblers. It was a grey looking Saturday morning and 1 degree Centigrade when we got to Newtonmore, the little road to the car park was very slippery over the wet snow.

From the car park there is a good track heading north up Allt a'Chaorainn that becomes increasingly wet and muddy until it ends at a swamp. There is wet snow on the ground and the path as such ends in a sodden mess by the side of a stream that has to be crossed. The whiteness and wetness makes navigation difficult but the bothy in the distance is something to aim for. Safely across the stream there is a hill to climb, not especially steep but strenuous enough as the snow becomes deeper and more consistent.

After we passed the corrugated iron bothy the snow and gradient were more consistent as we made a steady climb upwards. We had seen several red grouse making their noisy flying exit that attracts attention but the Ptarmigan adopted a different strategy believing that we couldn't see their off-white bodies on the bright white horizon. The views are are distant, there are no dramatic peaks here just the quiet beauty of the snow.

We have seen a few showers of icy crystals rather than snow but at the summit of A'Chailleach it is brighter but never really too sunny. At the summit we can see for miles, these are big hills, a long way from the next one. Except for nearby Carn Sgulain of course which needs a steep descent to the crossing of the burn in Allt Cull na Caillich and an equivalent steep climb up the snow. Then we found the fence that led us to the summit of Carn Sgulain which was too windy and cold to spend any time there.

We retraced our steps back along the fence before walking the long undulating ridge over Carn Ballach and Carn Ban to Carn Dearg. It isn't often you have so much help with navigation but the fence takes you all the way to Carn Ballach where the stony summit crown makes a change from the ankle deep snow over grass. The best visibility of the day let us see the route ahead and beyond, we have to not be greedy it would be dark before we got to the end of the attractive looking ridge beyond Carn Dearg. The walk from Carn Ballach to Carn Ban was the stoniest ground of the day and the descent from Carn Ban to the small col between it and Carn Dearg was the deepest snowdrift of the day.

The summit of Carn Dearg is a fine high viewpoint, the contrast between the snow covered hills and the dark brown colours of the valleys highlighted by the setting sun. Rather than follow the ridge we retraced our steps to the little col and made our way down Gleann Ballach in the shadow of Carn Dearg's crags. The lower we got the harder the going became, at first it was a steep descent over snow covered grass having to avoid the slippery, swampy areas. After that we were striding through snowy heather trying to avoid the muddy peat and the worst of the swamps. We then made a traverse over wet, boggy ground towards Allt Fionndrigh towards a track that was clearly marked on the map.

After a final steep, wet descent we reach Allt Fionndrigh itself and had to cross the swollen stream, I am sorely tempted to buy some walking poles after my recent stream crossings, it might save getting water in my boots sometimes. Safely across the stream before it got dark, it was becoming increasingly gloomy as we walked along the wettest path of the day before reaching the track. Not that the track was much better, the wooden poles used to ford the swamps have become more slippery than the muddy surfaces.

The surface of the track eventually got better as it moved away from the stream and by the time we reached level ground it had gone dark. The final walk in the dark was a lot less worrying that the drive along the A86 from Newtonmore back to Tulloch Station.

It was 10 degrees centigrade and drizzling on Sunday morning when we parked by the side of Loch Leven near Glen Coe village. There was no snow but it was the finest, wettest Scottish drizzle as we climbed the steepest of not so wee Corbetts. Garbh Bheinn looks a very attractive peak through the mist but there must be a lot more of it that can't be seen. The initial climb is very wet and swampy and steep, it is consistently wet until you get to a rock outcrop where you have to make a couple of careful steps over wet slabs.

Then you follow the contours on a steep slope high above Allt Gleann a' Chaolais where across the valley you can see steep cascading waterfalls coming down the back side of Aonach Eagach. We had got as high as I could see from the road when Gharb Bheinn revealed itself, a steep green ridge with no shortcuts, the rain could no longer be ignored and the wind started to matter. The short heather grows in thin soil that is very muddy and it very susceptible to being dislodged by a heavy boot. The steep slope has horizontal eroded steps that I suppose are a bit easier that walking through fresh heather.

After a hard slog up the steep wet slope with the wind beginning to be a problem the hill revealed some more of itself, any hopes of a reprieve were quickly dismissed as another steep climb rose ahead. Eventually the gradient eased, a section of less steep grass followed a bit of a scramble over a rock outcrop. There the final climb was not so much revealed as obscured by the mist but you could tell there was more steep work to do.

The final part of the climb showed just what an interesting hill this was, steep stony peaks with many rocky hollows and undoubtedly the finest of views. Unfortunately the wind was so strong that there was no incentive to hang around any longer than was necessary to visit the far cairn on a rocky plateau just to be sure that the summit was reached.

Then the descent I was dreading, steeply down over wet grass and through muddy wet heather at an angle of forty five degrees is not my favourite way of getting off a hill.

This is Scotland, challenging hills, the wettest mud of all and weather that is reliably unpredictable.

Andy Wallace 13th & 14th November 2004