This was another early start. Lee rejoined Sarah and I and we headed off to do the classic grade 1 traverse of the Ballachulish Horseshoe. This route takes in the summits of Sgorr Bahan (901m) and Sgorr Dhearg (1024m). This stunning round was fairly straight forward. A steep walk up frozen fields to the nose of the shoulder then follow the shoulder up the first peak, down to a little Bealach then up to the second summit (the Munro). However that said it was a truly fantastic day. We were tramping over perfect, hard, nevé. The ridge is steep with stunning drops and an almost perfect line.
We were treated to views East down Glencoe to Rannoch Moor and North to the unclouded summit of Ben Nevis. Part of me was gutted that we hadn't chosen to do the CMD Arete onto the Ben, but the weather forecast had predicted that cloud and clag would come in at lunch so we decided to do a less committing route.
We were treated to views East down Glencoe to Rannoch Moor and North to the unclouded summit of Ben Nevis. Part of me was gutted that we hadn't chosen to do the CMD Arete onto the Ben, but the weather forecast had predicted that cloud and clag would come in at lunch so we decided to do a less committing route.
The view.
Overall it was a short day out but non the less superb for experiencing a nice day on the mountain with some stunning views of the Scottish Highlands.
The day was marred slightly by a long trudge through the forest to reach the road (I won't be repeating this way off), and a grumpy SYHA keeper, but the less said about him the better.
The day was marred slightly by a long trudge through the forest to reach the road (I won't be repeating this way off), and a grumpy SYHA keeper, but the less said about him the better.