Stob Coire Sgriodan & Chno Dearg - Photo Gallery

It was another sunny morning, warm enough for teeshirt and shorts again; I was quite startled by the sight of the snow cornices on the hills, winter seemed a long way away. We made the short drive to Fersit; one of those small Scottish places that you might think makes the back of beyond seem busy. There is however a large parking area, it is a popular starting point for the local group of Munros; you would have to get up very early to be the first to get there. We walked along a good track, stopping on the bridge across River Treig to watch the fish in the crystal clear water.

After passing the last of the farm buildings the good track went on its way to Corrour Station and we had to turn right towards the nearest hill. We were walking across boggy ground that wasn't as difficult as it might usually be, after the recent spell of dry weather; there was a faint, but unconvincing, path heading in the right direction. The path disappeared as we started to take a more direct route to higher ground; I did suspect that the faint path might take a slightly easier route but I went along with the majority decision. We started to climb through heather, characteristically muddy where the underlying peat got waterlogged; there were no signs of any path or any previous disturbance on this route.

We were heading towards a grassy rake that slanted diagonally up between crags; it was steep enough and the tussock grass also had its swampy surprises if you weren't careful. At the top of the rake I left the main party to climb up between the rock outcrops, with just a little scrambling; I did come across a more obvious path that suggested my earlier suspicions were correct. At least the most strenuous climbing was over and it was a more straightforward climb up grass to the summit of Sron na Garbh-bheinne at the start of the ridge.

It was a broad, undulating ridge of exposed rock; the rock ended at a wide, shallow col, I always prefer crossing that kind of soggy ground in dry weather. Then there was a less steep climb up a broad, stony ridge full of sparkling stones; in places the rock has eroded to a glittering sand, giving a sheen to the whole hillside in the sunny weather. As we reached the crest of the final rise before the sweeping ridge up to the summit, we got the reward of a splendid view for the strenuous climb so far. We could see almost the full length of Loch Treig, the shapely summit of Stob Coire Easain on the other side of the loch and a splendid long distance view of Glen Coe and its mountains.

The huge summit cairn on the top of Stob Coire Sgriodan was visible a long time before we reached it; for once there was nobody else to meet us at the summit. We descended easily on a faint but obvious grassy path and ascended a similar gradient up to the the south-eastern top with its pristine cairn made from white quartz stones; the breeze had become too cool to ignore and I had to put on my pertec wind-shirt. We walked over stony, easily undulating ground before descending to a broad, grassy col.

We were walking across easy ground towards Chno Dearg, an unfrequented hill only of interest to Munro baggers who “have” to climb it, when we thought we may as well visit its equally neglected subsidiary top. As we walked across the easy grassy slopes to the top of Meall Garbh we could see its steep and rugged alter ego, where its crags dropped vertically eastwards. As we reached the summit plateau we met another group of walkers who had come from the direction of Beinn na Lap and were soon joined by another party who had been behind us. There seemed to be walkers coming from all directions, for once the lonely Munro top of Meall Garbh was busy.

We led a procession of walkers on a straightforward climb of the relatively easy grassy slopes to the summit of Chno Dearg, where we found another large cairn and a surprisingly large number of walkers already there. It was downhill all the way from there; the long descent northwards was generally on a narrow path through the heather, walking by the side of a small burn. After we had lost most of the height we stopped at the foot of a small waterfall to bathe our feet in the freezing but refreshing water. When we got back to the car park it was warm and sunny; was this really a Scottish afternoon in April?

© Andy Wallace 29th April 2007