Friday 14 June 2013

A Close Call on An Ruadh Stac

Sam and I were both keen to climb An Ruadh Stac since first seeing it whilst climbing Moal Chean-dearg. The day before we had passed close by, but decided against climbing it then as it was raining hard and the Quartzite slabs on its lower slopes are very slippery when wet.

We set off a bit late on the day, but made reasonable time and arrived at the base of the climb at lunchtime. We paused to eat by some small lochans that looked like balancing lakes, due to them being at different elevations.

The Lochans at the Base of An Ruadh Stac
An Ruadh Stac
We chose to make the climb harder than it needed to be as we wanted to get a bit of practice in for the pinnacles on Liathach. We kept to the edge of the ridge above the green coloured lochan in the picture above. 

At Peace With The World - Tired
Sam 
Check Out Those Quartzite Boulders - See Below
I was in front during the descent when suddenly I heard Sam shout "rock". I turned and saw a  large boulder racing down the mountain towards me. My initial attempt to get out of its way was pitiful, as I got no where trying to run on scree. Sam shouted "get out the way"! It was coming straight at me at an alarming rate. I just had to keep my eye on it and at the last minute dive out the way. It all happened so quickly and it could so easily have ended in disaster as it was a real close call.

We had clocked up about 12 miles by the time we walked back into our accommodation, but it had been great fun.


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