Graeme wanted us to do the Five Sisters so back to Glen Shiel it was. It was also going to be my hundredth munro so a quarter bottle of champagne was procured.
Our neighbour at the Shiel Bridge campsite drove us up the road to where he said the walk began. I can't imagine how anyone could walk that road and do the Five Sisters as well. He showed us the path between the break in the trees, said it zigzagged for a while then petered out leaving you to climb direct to the ridge. Sure enough the path went up clearly but after about a quarter of the way was clearly veering off parallel to the road and not going in the direction we wanted. All we could do was leave it and make our way straight up. This was a nightmare of a route. Very steep with thick hummocky grass and an unrelenting drag. Graeme showed his fitness by going way ahead but I was dragging badly, not helped
by a heavy rucksack. It must have taken us over one and a half hours to get to the saddle, though like our friend we ended half way up Sgurr nan Spainteach. I don't want to do that again. On the ridge it was pleasant walking with nice views up to Spainteach. The route from here to the summit seemed to go on and on, up and down, over some minor scrambly bits and by the time we got to the summit cairn I was whacked. I really felt that this mountain had made me pay the price for visiting it. Nonetheless one hundred done and champagne out. Not that pleasant drinking out of the remains of a fruit juice carton but a nice feeling. Weather good but quite a bit of mist though it cleared enough to show us the way forward. No problems in any event route finding as there is a strong path all the way.
Completely got it wrong again. I had it in my head that Sgurr nan Saighead was the munro and treated this hill as merely a top. It might well now have been promoted to munro status but to be honest it didn't feel much more than a top. Again, a lot of up and down and every so often a bit of scrambling to make it interesting but nothing to write home about. Enjoyable though and we were soon at the top. No cairn photos though because of my silly mistake. Actually I was not on my own here as two young guys turned up and both of them considered Saighead (Shaggy) to be the munro. They also choked us by saying that on Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe they had been entertained by eagles. At my moan on never seeing them he said that this was the first time in forty visits he had seen them. He reckoned that all the tourists who claim to have seen eagles are actually seeing buzzards or the like. I suspect he is right.
It was quite a fast trip from Sgurr na Carnach to the saddle between the hills and up the other side to the cairn at the top. We were there much quicker than expected which reinforces my feeling that Sgurr na Carnach is a pretty weak munro. I also seemed to have at last got my second wind as, while the climb to Carnach was agonisingly slow I seemed to whiz up this hill. Guinness and 1664 for lunch, a real boozy day. Coming off this hill gave us a puzzle for a little while. In the partial mist we could only see the ridge leading down to Glen Shiel , the escape route from Sgurr Fhurain but it looked to be the only way. Then the mist cleared and Sgurr nan Saighead appeared. It justified in my mind munro status which is why I had no doubt it was the munro. It was only on getting home and looking at the book I realised the error. Still, although it looked magnificent with a great sweeping bow down, round and up it was very easy in practice to walk it. Shortly before the summit which was quite rocky I saw a path veer to the left and assumed it was aiming for an easier part of the rocks to climb. It wasn't, so I had to make my own way up from the side reaching the summit from a completely different direction. Graeme said that I had missed a really airy walk as the route he took went right along the edge of some very sheer cliffs. Perhaps my path was a cop out after all.
Coming off this hill and passing Beinn Bhuidhe down to a col we had a problem deciding where the route off actually started. The col had a bump in the middle and we went down before reaching this. I think we were wrong as we ended up contouring very steep slopes to reach a path we were certain had to be there. Eventually we did hit upon the path, fairly overgrown and still very steep but by this time I was dead on my feet. The combination of a heavy bag, a long day, a weary uphill climb and this contouring had got me. My legs were collapsing and the journey down was an even worse nightmare than the one up. After a few years or so I made it to some boggy ground, across a rickety wooden bridge and over a field to where Graeme was resting by the roadside. Once on the road it wasn't so bad and we had about half to one mile back to the campsite. A great walk and well deserving its fame a classic walk, but very quiet. If I had been surprised to find Ben Chonzie well populated I was amazed at how few people we saw here the whole day.
View from Sgurr na Saighead
