Glen Dessary Weekend
Glen Dessary Wild Camping Weekend – 11 to 13th May 2018
Left Aberdeenshire in glorious sunshine to reach Spean Bridge and it was raining, don’t think I will be popular with everyone pitching tents in the rain, but XC Weather did say the rain will stop at 10.00 pm the rest of the weekend will be nice!!
Saturday morning and you can’t see the other side of the loch for the low cloud, where is the sunshine that was promised!! The group gathers at 8.00 am, Jane set off on her bike heading for Bidean a’Chabair. While Chris, Ruth, Steve, Bob, Ali and myself set of up the track to Glen Dessary, today’s mountains are Sgurr Mor (munro) and Sgurr an Fhuarain (corbett). This is Ruth’s idea just in case she is going to do a second round of the munros she didn’t want to go back in again for Sgurr Mor. As we followed the Allt na Feithe to the bealach, the cloud lifted, the sun came out and we got the most wonderful views.
The weather stayed like this into the evening. At the bealach Chris decided to add on Sgurr Cos an Breach-Laoigh and meet us on Sgurr Mor.
We headed into the valley then followed to zig zag stalkers path onto Sgurr Beag and then onto Sgurr Mor. It took us 5 hours to reach the summit, so we stopped for a well deserved hour lunchbreak, when was the last time the weather was so good to stop for that long on a summit!
After lunch, we followed the ridge along to Sgurran Fhuarain.
From there we knew we had to drop all the way down into the valley and climb back up to the bealach again before reaching Glen Dessary, we enjoyed the sunshine and stopping for a few more picnics on route it was a rather pleasant walk back to camp.
Jane on summit of Bidean a' Chabair.
We had pitched our tents on the banks of Loch Arkaig, so we enjoyed dinner by the loch in the evening sunshine.
While watching a display by a motorised paraglider.
Sunday morning and I could hear rain on the tent, but this wasn’t forecast! Today’s corbetts are Fraoch Bheinn & Sgurr Mhurlagain, again the group gather at 8.00 am in the rain and low cloud, this time Bob set of on his bike heading for the 3 munros, Sgurr nan Coireachan, Garbh Chioch Mhor & Sgurr na Ciche. We set of along the Glen Dessary track, then followed the stalkers path, which has moved and is now on the west side of the Dearg Allt. We struck off to follow the ridge to the summit...
From the summit Jane headed north west into the cloud and along the ridge in the direction of Sgurr Cos an Breach-Laoigh. We retrace our steps to avoid the crags and as if by magic the low cloud lifted and we could see the col between the two hills we were aiming for. In the sunshine navigating the broad grassy flank to the summit of Sgurr Mhurlagain was no problem.
We didn’t follow the book route back to the col and into Glen Dessary, with the excellent visibility we made a bee line for the car park at the end of the road.
Apart from the ticks, we had a great weekend and climbed all the mountains we had set out to conquer.
Susan
