Mam Sodhail, Carn Eige & Beinn Fhionnlaidh (Glen Affric)

After doing the Mullardoch round, Ally and I camped overnight again at the dam carpark at Loch Mullardoch.  The next day dawned calm and sunny – it was going to be another fine day.

After a long day yesterday, we were slow to wake up and get going.  We drove down lovely Glen Cannich, stopping to take a blurry picture of some stags running away from us through the river.

And then we stopped at the shop in Cannich, faffing about buying ice creams and juice.  We had no business starting such a long day at 10.30am but with the days so long at this time of year we had daylight on our side.

Glen Affric looked lovely as we drove down in the morning sun.  When we started walking along the north side of Loch Affric it really looked very beautiful.

Just before Affric Lodge (featured in David Beckham’s horrendous whisky advert), we took a bulldozed track up to the right.

Lovely views opening up down the glen

We followed this for a few kms until a prominent cairn signalled where to turn off, to head up the former Munro of Sgurr na Lapaich (not the same Sgurr na Lapaich as the Mullardoch one).  This used to be a Munro – was on Hugh Munro’s original list – but for some inexplicable reason was demoted to a Munro top.

Sgurr na Lapaich – our target

We followed a faint path until we crossed a burn where we made the mistake of turning right rather than left, into a world of rough, tussocky and steep horror.  Both of us were tired from the day before and found it tough plodding up in the heat.

Och

We ended up following a grassy line until we eventually came to a rocky outcrop where we intersected a path.  The views opening up over Glen Affric were simply breathtaking.  And we could see Ben Nevis was completely out of the cloud, which is rare.

There’s The Ben! (far distance)

Looking back to Gleann nam Fiadh

The path climbed up through boulders and rocks to reach the large summit cairn of Sgurr na Lapaich.

From here there were a lovely few kms of ridge walking ahead of us.  We could see the twin peaks of Mam Sodhail and Carn Eige with collapsed snow cornices in the corrie between them.

Looking back to Sgurr na Lapaich

Crazy pinnacles on the ridge opposite coming from Carn Eige

Collapsed cornicing

Still-frozen Loch Uaine

It was fantastic walking along the ridge listening to the burns crashing far below in the glens on either side.

We climbed up a lovely path to reach the huge summit cairn of Mam Sodhail.

Opposite, we could see four figures summiting Carn Eige.  There were tremendous views from here, and we stopped and had a break to soak them up and put on more sunscreen.  Despite putting on factor 50 several times today I still got sunburnt!

There was a steep drop from Mam Sodhail down to the adjoining bealach to Carn Eige but there was a good path that zig-zagged down through the rocks and boulders.  There was then a climb back up to the summit of Carn Eige.

Looking back at the ridge we had just walked over

Looking back up at Mam Sodhail

We were dismayed to find we were in the clouds at the summit and that a huge bank of cloud had come sweeping in.  We did not stay long at the summit cairn, mainly because it was very cold.  We could see Beinn Fhionnlaidh ahead and swithered whether to leave it for another day as we were pretty tired, but there was really no question.  The only issue was time because it was getting on – by now it was about 3.30pm.

Looking across to Beinn Fhionnlaidh from Carn Eige (it’s a bit smaller)

We clambered down another steep slope through boulders and met four men coming down from Beinn Fhionnlaidh at the bealach (the only folk we saw all day) so stopped to chat.  The two older guys blethered away, full of beans, whereas the two younger guys appeared dead on their feet, all chat dried up!  They still had a long way to go.

There was another pull up to the summit of Beinn Fhionnlaidh where we saw the cloud had cleared a little.  It was a wee bit grey but it was great to be on the summit of this remote Munro, looking back over the Mullardoch mountains we had clambered over the day before, as well as Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan and surrounding hills, and across to Torridon.

Down into Loch Mullardoch

Towards Mullach na Dheiragain

Gleann a’ Choilich

Coire Lochan

We made our way back down again and back up, bypassing Carn Eige’s flanks at 1035m and traversing to the connecting ridge from Mam Sodhail.  Unfortunately we had to climb the steep zig-zag path all the way back again up Mam Sodhail to return.  We touched the cairn again, hopefully wondering if this would count as a second ascent in our next Munro round 🙂

We could not see much ahead, and the ridge back across to Sgurr na Lapaich was lost in the mist.

What a difference from earlier.  We decided to drop down into Coire Leachavie and follow the path along the glen instead of another ascent up and over Sgurr na Lapaich.  From the bealach on the ridge we descended on very steep grassy slopes.  I was very glad of my walking poles here.

We got to the burn and had a wee break to replenish our water.  There is no water on much of the walk and we had drank all our supplies.

I could see cloud encroaching from both the foot of the glen and the head of the glen – both sides and coming up to us closer and closer.  We were completely enclosed in the only clear spot – it was spooky and gave me the heebs!

It’s coming to get us!

There was a good stalkers path to follow all the way back to Loch Affric where we made our way back to the carpark.

Back at Loch Affric – a welcome sight

A bit gloomier

It was a long day – 11 hours – so we were just about ready to drop when we got back to the van.  However, it had been a sensational walk and we were tired but happy as we made our way to Cannich campsite for a hot shower and sleep!