Abacus Mountain Guides
  • Home
  • Adventures
    • Ben Nevis >
      • Ben Nevis Winter Ascent
      • Ben Nevis Mountain Track
      • Coire Leis
      • CMD Arete
      • Ledge Route
      • Tower Ridge
      • Events and Challenges
    • Provident Sailing & Hill Walking
    • Summer Guiding >
      • Ring of Steall
      • Glen Coe Walks
      • Curved Ridge
      • Aonach Eagach
      • Rock Climbing
      • Sea Stack Odyssey
      • Private Guiding
    • Skye and the Cuillin Ridge >
      • Cuillin Ridge Traverse
      • Cuillin Munro Bagging
      • Inaccessible Pinnacle
    • Winter Guiding >
      • Winter Walking >
        • Winter Skills Courses
        • Guided Winter Walking
      • Winter Climbing >
        • Intro to Winter Climbing
        • Classic Winter Mountaineering
        • Winter Climbing Progression
        • Classic Winter Climbing
        • Guided Winter Climbing
        • Performance Winter Climbing Workshop
      • Skiing >
        • Intro to Ski Touring
        • Scottish Steep Skiing
        • Ropework for Skiers
      • Avalanche Awareness
      • Women's Winter Festival
      • Fort William Mountain Festival Workshops
      • Winter Resources
    • Mountain Leader Courses
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • About
  • Sustainability
  • Booking
  • Partners
  • Covid-19

Sunny days and starry nights.

16/3/2016

0 Comments

 
After a busy couple of weeks and a few days off with an excellent weather forecast, a couple of solo trips were long overdue. First up was a couple of days out in one of my favourite parts of Scotland for walking and some hills I'd never done before in Glenfinnan. A bike is very handy here and cuts out a few kilometres of walking on a tarmac road to get to Corryhully bothy. Leaving my bike at the bothy I carried on up the glen to skirt around the back of Streap to find a more wintery north ridge onto the summit. The lower section was a slippery, grassy scramble but the rest of the way on snow to the summit and the ridge off the south west side were fantastic, despite the cloud coming in on the descent.
​
After having the bothy to myself (and an overly friendly mouse) I woke up to clear blue skies and got an early start on the Glenfinnan Horseshoe. Winter was just about hanging in there on Sgurr nan Coireachan but the rest of the route was patches of snow going soft in the sun. It's an excellent route, well worth doing in summer or winter but a bike is definitely recommended, especially if you're going to do it without a night in the bothy.
Picture
Trip number two was to another range of mountains I'm ashamed to say I'd never visited before - the Grey Corries. These lie just to the east of Ben Nevis and are a long chain of mountains with numerous summits and sharp ridges. The calm clear weather was set to continue so it was perfect for a two day traverse, starting at the eastern end with Stob Coire Gaibhre and finishing on Aonach Mor.
Picture
The plan for the traverse was to get as far as possible on the first day, hopefully leaving myself a nice, easy second day. A long but brilliant day got me to the bealach between Sgurr Choinnich Beag and Stob Coire Bhealaich. With such stunning weather forecast for the two days I hadn't seen the point in carrying a tent so found a nice person-sized ledge tucked behind a little crag out the wind just asking to be bivvied on.
Picture
The sun went down, the temperature barely dropped, and all the stars came out for a perfect night on the ridge. I woke up above the clouds and with the sun just coming up on another crystal clear day. The snow hadn't frozen at all overnight so I was grateful for the early start as the steep slushy snow on the ridge onto Stob Coire Bhealaich was only going to get slushier in the sun. From there it was a very slow amble over Aonach Beag and Aonach Mor, mainly because I didn't want it to end. After not seeing a single person for nearly two days it just goes to show that you don't have to travel far at all to find some wilderness and you don't always have to be hanging off the end of a rope to have an incredible adventure!

​By Sally
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Mike Pescod
    mountain guide.

    Self reliance is a fundamental principle of mountaineering. By participating we accept this and take responsibility for the decisions we make. These blog posts and conditions reports are intended to help you make good decisions. They do not remove the need for you to make your own judgements when out in the hills.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    Picture

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


Picture
Jottnar
info@abacusmountainguides.com
+44 (0) 1397 703563
  • Home
  • Adventures
    • Ben Nevis >
      • Ben Nevis Winter Ascent
      • Ben Nevis Mountain Track
      • Coire Leis
      • CMD Arete
      • Ledge Route
      • Tower Ridge
      • Events and Challenges
    • Provident Sailing & Hill Walking
    • Summer Guiding >
      • Ring of Steall
      • Glen Coe Walks
      • Curved Ridge
      • Aonach Eagach
      • Rock Climbing
      • Sea Stack Odyssey
      • Private Guiding
    • Skye and the Cuillin Ridge >
      • Cuillin Ridge Traverse
      • Cuillin Munro Bagging
      • Inaccessible Pinnacle
    • Winter Guiding >
      • Winter Walking >
        • Winter Skills Courses
        • Guided Winter Walking
      • Winter Climbing >
        • Intro to Winter Climbing
        • Classic Winter Mountaineering
        • Winter Climbing Progression
        • Classic Winter Climbing
        • Guided Winter Climbing
        • Performance Winter Climbing Workshop
      • Skiing >
        • Intro to Ski Touring
        • Scottish Steep Skiing
        • Ropework for Skiers
      • Avalanche Awareness
      • Women's Winter Festival
      • Fort William Mountain Festival Workshops
      • Winter Resources
    • Mountain Leader Courses
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • About
  • Sustainability
  • Booking
  • Partners
  • Covid-19