Stob Ghabhar

Friday 14th September 2007

My last walk of the holiday had variable weather from heavy rain at times to bright sunshine at other times and clear blue skies. I was walking in the Black Mount, a group of hills that I had walked past while doing the West Highland Way three years ago and yearned to be at the top of them rather than below. This was my chance to achieve that desire, but unfortunately I was only able to do half the Munros in the Black Mount, so the others will have to wait for another day. For this walk I parked at the Victoria Bridge car park near Bridge of Orchy and immediately I was plagued by midges. I'd been lucky this year with midges having not seen any on Skye in July and obviously none at Easter. It's surprising that I'd not previously experienced any on this holiday, but they were about to make amends. Quickly I finished getting ready and rushed off across Victoria Bridge as I tried to outpace the 'Wee beasties,' but whenever I stopped they resumed their attack.

Walking beside the river Abhainn Shira on a landrover track I reached a mountaineer's hut where a path headed up the hillside and a board detailed the restrictions in place due to deer stalking. It also surprised me that it had taken until now for deer stalking to cause a problem for me, but now it was severely restricting my movements. Taking a note of the details I headed up the, at times, boggy path beside the Allt Toaig enduring intermittent rain as I ascended. After a while I turned off to the right and climbed an even boggier path towards Stob a' Choire Odhair, and eventually, after a long walk across the broad top, I reached the summit where I was rewarded with amazing views over Rannoch Moor that was a awe-inspiring. The top of this Munro is a perfect place to view this huge marsh-land in all it's glory.

Turning my back on the moor I headed off the hilltop and descended the rocky western ridge to the bealach with Stob Ghabhar. At this point I had a look at Ralph Storer's book to check my route and discovered that I was supposed to cross the corrie to my right and then climb the ridge opposite. But this was not covered on the routes allowed due to deer stalking. Taking a look around me I thought "What the hell...", and headed off across the top of Coire Dhearbhadh. The pathless wet traverse took me across the Allt Coire Dhearbhadh and then suddenly I stopped dead. High above me on the ridge I was about to climb up was a small pack of deer. I suddenly felt incredibly guilty for they were all running away from me down the valley. When they had gone, and with enormous trepidation, I started climbing the ridge to the spot where the deer had been. All I really wanted was to get off this part of the hillside that I was not supposed to be on.

At the top of the ridge, at Aisre nan Each, I had my lunch while gazing out over Rannoch Moor seeing successive rain showers passing over the huge bog. As I ended my lunch the rain came upon me and fell heavily as I climbed the grass and rock ridge to the top of Sròn nan Giubhas. Just as I was hoping the rain was going to be as short lived as the previous showers I noticed blue skies to the north and hoped the rain would soon end, but that wasn't all. The blue skies that I had glimpsed were just a foretaste of what was to come. As I arrived on the wide summit plateau the sun came out turning everything into a very nice day with clear views across to all the mountains around me, including Ben Nevis on the horizon. Skirting around the top of the corrie with Coirein Lochain twinkling below I climbed up to the summit of Stob Ghabhar.

Once at the summit I was amazed by the stunning views that I could see all around me of mountains in all directions except across Rannoch Moor. The best views were to the north encompassing some of the highest and best looking mountains in the country, especially those around Glen Coe and Glen Nevis. I was mesmerised and couldn't help thinking that this was my last mountain of the year. I went home the next day and I would not get to see views like this again till next year. I didn't want to leave, but eventually, and with great reluctance, I left the summit and descended the narrow ridge eastwards. This ridge is called Aonach Eagach and even though it is nowhere near as bad as it's Glen Coe namesake I was still rather nervous as I crossed the short narrow ridge. At a 991m top I decided that I would spurn Storer's route down the widening ridge of Aonach Eagach in favour of the clear footpath north to the bealach.

I dropped very steeply down the rocky hillside until eventually, and with a bit of relief, I got to the bottom where I followed the path across the bealach. Halfway across I dropped south off the wide ridge onto an extremely muddy path that was an utter nightmare to negotiate. As I approached the point where I had left this path earlier the conditions underfoot improved and from there on I was able to enjoy the descent in the sunshine as I returned back down beside the Allt Toaig and later the Abhainn Shira. At first, this walk seemed like it was going to be really bad, due to the weather, but actually turned out to have some of the best weather of the holiday. I went home the next day with some regret as I had had a great time on this holiday doing some fantastic walks, though only when the weather was at its best, like at the end of this walk.