Today I ticked my first Munro summit in winter, solo! I chose to head up Sgurr Eilde Mor (big peak of the hind) at 1010m, from Mamore Lodge. This mountain is part of the Mamores range and is the most easterly and remote peak of that group. From Loch Eilde Mor I took the old stalkers track up into Coire an Lochain. The Coire looked fantastic in all its winter whiteness, while the surrounding hills cowered under a dark foreboding sky. The weather forecast was less than ideal though, promising sleet/snow, low temperatures and winds gusting 40mph. However, all was calm in the coire and although the low cloud shrouded the summit from view, it presented valuable navigation practice for me! It would have been nice to have had the time and the weather to do Binnein Beag and Binnein Mor too but that will have to wait for a better day. Today's walk was only about 14km length in total and I was back at the Mamore Lodge at 2:30pm (just in time to miss the sleet showers scurrying in from Glencoe).
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| Summit cairn (looking NE) |
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| Coire an Lochain |
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| Looking back west towards Glencoe (Pap of Glencoe on the right) |
Before this, I had a LONG day on Saturday... My friend, Kat, and I left my house in Glencoe at 6:15am to go winter climbing on Ben Nevis. The walk-in to Coire na Ciste always feels long and tiring but especially so when carrying a heavy winter pack (rope, rack, crampons, ice screws etc!) On this day the cloud level was really low and were surprised when we suddenly arrived at the CIC hut because we couldn't see it at all! We headed up into the coire, hoping to find Number Two Gully Buttress but after 2.5h of looking for it in a thick eerie cloud (along with many other confused climbers), we decided to retrace our steps and head for a route we had done before (one we could find in the low visibility). We ended up getting a late start on Number Three Gully Butress. The route was enjoyable and exciting at times! Once on the top we headed for the summit plateau to take it the view (because typically the cloud had cleared while we were on the route and it was now a gorgeous day!) Later, we headed down via the Red Burn and made it back to the car just before darkness closed in.
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