Unfinished business on Sgùrr a' Mhaoraich

Climbed by year and month

Climbed by year and month

Sgùrr a' Mhaoraich means the "peak of the shellfish", which whilst it's not too far from Loch Hourn it didn't appear to have much connection to shellfish that I noticed. A previous visit here resulted in an aborted mission just metres from the summit due to snow. I hoped to avoid another miss but would see how the day progresses.

We parked by the stand of trees on some rough ground just west of the start of the stalkers path and walked round the corner to the pole which marks the start of the stalkers path. It only took us 10 minutes. A cool fresh start to the day, the sun breaking through cloud and the road was quiet despite it being 8am on a weekend.

The path starts narrow and rough climbing across a steep bank through bracken. Once up it soon improves and after a few zigzags passes under the electricity pylons to Skye. Looking back over Loch Cuaich are the hills of Sgùrr Mòr to Sgùrr na Ciche and the others usually accessed from Glendessarry.

A lone helicopter bag sat weighed down by a couple of rocks, discarded for some time with fraying ends spreading plastic in the breeze. Curiously there was no evidence the path had been 'maintained' with rock from this bag. As it should be of course, path repairs shouldn't shout loudly. Maybe done by an old stalker. Whatever, or whoever, my knees were grateful the path wasn't just a giant grinding staircase.

By the time I got to the top of Sgùrr Coire nan Eiricheallach I was feeling pretty confident I'd mange to complete this walk. It had taken a time to find my alpine pace, a decanted can of Red Bull had finally woken my head up enough to cajole leg muscles into doing a bit of actual work. Mind over matter, and all that.

I spotted a couple and a darker golden retriever, called Jasper, coming up the ridge of Bac nan Canaichean some way behind me. I expected them to catch me up pretty quickly.

From this minor top the last 250ish metres of ascent follows a clear, sometimes airy path winding it's way along a ridge and between boulders to a wee respite before the final steep push to the summit. I'd still not been overtaken! And that final bit, where I'd stopped before because it was banked out with snow and I didn't have crampons or ice axe... Well that was dry and clear. So no excuses. I was going to get this.

We'd just got to the summit, taken a few snaps when Skye started staring at the way we'd come up. Jasper and his folks were arriving too. So I just managed not to get overtaken. As I saw them at the start of the day I asked how long after I'd passed by did they set off. "Oh about 10 - 15 minutes" - yeah that'll do me! Even if they were being kind and it was more like an hour I'd still be happy.

Where the low cloud had broken up the views were still quite hazy. I recognised Loch Hourn to the west and just a glimpse of the sea proper. To the north east and round to the north west was the South Glenshiel Ridge and The Saddle. Wonderful views to play name those hills.

On the summit area there were a couple of good sized puddles for doggy drinks, and jasper waded in for a dunk to cool off. Brilliant, and much deserved.

We both had our lunch and looked around for a while. Whilst the sun was warm the wind was stronger than expected and rather cold but we found shelter amongst the rocks on the lee side.

For the return we could have made a circular of it, but kept things simple and retraced our steps. It was an easy walk back and we met another 2 dogs on their way up. Oh and we saw a paraglider soaring on the wind. An excellent day out.