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| An Teallach Traverse |
The route had a distance of 17.5km (11 miles) and 1497m ascent. The walk involves considerable scrambling (mainly across the Pinnacles) and took us 8 hours in total.
We had some glimpses of sunshine and blue sky in the early morning on Saturday, so were hoping for a sunny day for this classic ridge traverse. Eventually, we were duly served up another typical Scottish day, complete with drizzle and general clagginess!A meandering track wanders up the Meall Garbh ridge, eventually bringing you across some strange pancake-like stones covering a set of terraces at the head of the coire on your left. A purely geological phenomenon, they give the ground a paved appearance.
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| Bidean a Ghlas Thuill |
Looming ahead are the impressive overhanging Pinnacles and Lord Berkely's Seat (an usual sofa-shaped rock jutting out from the precipice, with a 350m drop below your feet!!) The sandstone rock is brilliant and the scrambling superb. The exposure is extreme enough to give even the most carefree the heebie-jeebies!
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| Overhanging Pinnacles from above |
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| Sitting on top of the Pinnacles! |
Sitting on the very top of the Pinnacles is a thrilling experience (although I wasn't keen to stick around up there too long!) Following this initial section, the scrambling over Corrag Bhuide is more broken up. There is a lower level track which misses out most of the difficulties but if you can stick to the crest and find a plentitude of excellent bouldering problems of varying levels of trickiness. The Torridonian sandstone gives rise to usual pancake-stacks and seemingly (or really) unstable boulders in precarious places!
At the end of the Corrag Bhuide ridge things end abruptly with a steep crag, which would be a pretty serious downclimb. We back-tracked a little here and dropped off the ridge to the south and down to a track visible below. After such sustained scrambling, it is a considerable pull up to the summit of Cadha Gobhlach (960m), just when you were hoping for some rest from the hardwork! The height-gain required to reach the final summit (Sail Liath, 954m) is less than the previous one and this top represents the end of the traverse. From here you can see an impressive quartzite faultline to the north, over Loch Toll an Lochain. Howver, it is the view to the south which is truly breathtaking. A rare glimpse of the spectacular Fisherfield Munros tempts the mind to think of the next epic undertaking......
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| Beinn Dearg Mor and Gleann na Muice in the background |
From here Ben and I descended the broad bouldery ridge SE from the summit, traversing in a northerly direction as we went, to eventually pick up the track at the bottom. This rocky (but in places boggy) track eventually joins a more major track down through the stunning Gleann Chaorach and passed a picturesque waterfall before reaching the A832 at Corrie Hallie.
A long and tedious 5km walk along the road back to the car is now ahead.... that is unless some very kind fellow-walker drives by and offers you a lift!!!
An Tellach is an amazing hill day, a fantastic scramble and the perfect all-rounder. More managable than the Cuillin ridge Traverse but with all the same exposure and quality of scenery. I look forward to heading back up there to try it again (in the dry/sunshine) and to investigate the remote Fisherfield Hills.....
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| Yipeeee!!! |
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| The Ewe Slab (Vs 4c) |
That sounds like it was a great day. I went up there about 18 years ago in fantastic sunshine, only intending to do just a few Munros (in total that is). Now, with 99 left to do I'm hoping to do the Fisherfield Six this coming May, and like you I'm in training. 10,000ft and 24 miles, trouble is I live in Leicestershire and the training requires a bit of imagination to be used for a 52 year old man! Best of luck with your adventures, I'm sure I'll enjoy following your progress.
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