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

Sgorr Ruadh and Beinn Liath Mhor

I was counting the cost of falling over the previous day when I put my boots on for one of the more strenuous walks of our holiday. I had stood on a rock, which tipped over leaving me to fail miserable at staying on my feet. I smashed down into a mossy stream with a sickening thud. My camera crashed into the stream bed and I really thought the worst. Standing up I checked my camera and amazingly it was not marked at all and worked perfectly. I had landed badly on my right knee and elbow, which were both cut and bruised. My clothes were also in a bit of a state. What's worse we had hardly gone any distance from the nearby road and my acrobatics had been witnessed by all my family.

Anyway I soon forgot my aches and pains once we set off as the weather was perfect. Fuar Tholl dominated the view as we had to travel almost all the way around it. 

Fuar Tholl from the west - can you make out the face?

Ptarmigan

I was pleased to locate Ptarmigan on most of the mountains I climbed during my recent trip to Scotland. I had failed to locate any on the west coast mountains during my trip in May 2012. Some of them where quite low down the mountain. The male pictured below was at 650 metres, which is quite low down considering the time of year.

Using the Bird Track App on my phone I was able to record precisely their location and upload the sighting to the BTO to help with their 'What's Up' survey - more on the Bird Track App for smart phones later.

Moal Chean-dearg

Moal Chean-dearg (right) and An Ruadh Stac (behind to the left)

The Horns of Beinn Alligin

The weather forecast for the first full day of our holiday was dry with light winds, but typically we woke up to rain. Luckily the rain stopped after an hour, so we kept to our plan of going to Torridon and conquering Beinn Alligin and its famous horns.

The clouds were just lifting as we set of from the car park near Torridon House. Hopefully we would get to see why this mountain is said to be beautiful. The close proximity to the sea and the prevailing westerly weather fronts ensure that its slopes are kept nice and green.

Cloud Lifting off the Horns