Creag Meagaidh

For our May 2009 trip Howard and I had planned a six day expedition to the Fisherfield and Torridon area for which we would meet up at Inverness Airport on the Sunday afternoon and hopefully have time to walk in to Shenavall from Corrie Hallie that evening. I arrived on a late evening flight from Marseille to Edinburgh on the previous Friday and was met by Ruth who not only gave me a lift to Mum's but also lent me a pile of lightweight camping gear for our foray into Fisherfield. I had booked a hire car from Mitchell's at Haymarket to be collected first thing on Saturday morning. For some reason I felt compelled to try to fit in as many Munros as possible on my own before meeting up with Howard, so after picking up the car I did a whirlwind trip round Asda to buy the bulk of our food for the week then set off up the road to Loch Laggan. In the two half days available to me I was hoping to snap up all the peaks of Creag Meagaidh, plus Beinn a' Chaorainn and Beinn Teallach. This was a rather crazy plan.

The weather forecast was not really on my side. Some good weather was definitely on the way, but it wouldn't arrive until later on Sunday. Whatever I did would have to be done in less than ideal conditions. After a hurried lunch by Loch Laggan I continued a short way to Aberarder and managed to get going up the path into Coire Ardair by 10 to 1. In my eternal optimism I reckoned I could climb Carn Liath by its south ridge, continue the traverse over three more tops to Stob Poite Coire Ardair, drop to the Window then finish off with Creag Meagaidh itself, before returning to the Window, descending by Coire Ardair and getting back to the car in time to find a good camping spot somewhere nearby.

However, as I started up the path, the tops were all in cloud and the weather was looking decidedly iffy. Plan B was to continue straight up Coire Ardair to the Window, start off with the ascent of Creag Meagaidh, and then do the other two Munros if the weather improved - effectively Plan A but in reverse.

As the path began to climb, looking back I got a view over Loch Laggan to the hills that Howard and I had climbed the previous year - most prominently Creag Pitridh seen here.

Looking up the glen to Stob Poite Coire Ardair

The path up Coire Ardair is excellent all the way to Lochan a' Choire, which was more than could be said for the weather - there was a light drizzle for much of the way. After the lochan the path steepens and the quality deteriorates rapidly. Not only that but I was now walking in snow, following a set of fairly fresh bootprints rather than trying to stay on the path. This seemed very useful at the time, but in fact they led me off to the left much too soon and I ended up following snow steps up a very steep ascent onto the plateau of Creag Meagaidh.

Lochan a

At the top I was into the mist, which was showing no sign of lifting at all, so the bootprints became even more useful on an otherwise fairly featureless, snow-covered, mist-bound landscape. The trouble was that they were now becoming quite difficult to follow and I kept losing them. By now snow was falling too and blowing quite hard into my face, reducing my visibility to almost nothing. I had to take off my glasses and hold my compass up to my face to try to keep on the right bearing for the summit.

These were of course atrocious conditions for trying to find your way around the summit plateau of Creag Meagaidh, and I was becoming resigned to the fact that I might never find the summit and have to abandon the attempt and retrace my steps as best I could. Just then however, more by luck than anything else, I stumbled upon what I assumed was Mad Meg's Cairn, a large cairn not too far from the true summit. On this assumption I continued on on the right bearing and, after some panicky moments, I did in fact reach the summit, to my great relief.

The fun wasn't over yet of course. I still had to find my way back to the Window and the weather was showing no signs of improving. Well it was pretty straightforward map and compass stuff, but when I began to descend to where I thought the Window should be and the mist started to clear it looked nothing like the steep slope I'd come up by. This naturally put me into a panic - where on earth was I? The map and compass told me I was where I should be, so I continued down. Then as I got close to the bealach at the bottom it dawned on me what had happened. This was the route I should have come up by but didn't, having turned off too soon.

Now it was decision time - was I going to continue with the crazy plan of trying to cram in as many Munros as possible before meeting Howard or was I going get straight back to the car and find a nice comfortable camping spot for the night? In the aftermath of my ordeal on Creag Meagaidh, and seeing that the other two Munros were still in low cloud it wasn't a very hard decision. I stumbled down through the Window in snow then mud and finally got back onto the good path. It was still a long, long tramp back to Aberarder and it was raining most of the way, although the sun did finally break through near the end of the walk. I was very glad to get back to the car and tuck in to some sandwiches and sausage rolls washed down with Irn Bru.

Carn Liath from the glen

Birch trees in Coill-a

It was now nearly 7 o'clock. Eventually I set off driving southwest along the road towards Moy and before long I found a deserted car park on the loch side of the road, and a suitable spot to put up the tent just over a low ridge and hidden from the car park. The tent was Ruth's SuperLite which she had assured me was super easy to erect and sure enough, I managed to get it up in just 12 minutes. I crawled into my sleeping bag, had some more Irn Bru and settled down for a good sleep. Tomorrow was another day and I would decide what to do with it in the morning.