This was a very popular meet and the Naismith hut ended up oversubscribed on the booking night. A ballot decided the lucky group who got to stay in the hut (Allan S, Kate, Sophie H, Nicola K, Doug, Rhi, Emma Y and myself, plus Fiona M and Alison C who booked the 2 SMC places), whilst others (Anna, Steve, Fiona C, Helen, Claire and Kenny) camped at Ardmair.
Doug, Rhi and I started our journey north on Thursday evening with a drive to Kingussie, whilst Claire and Neil took the train from Edinburgh at approximately the same time. Serendipitously car and train overlapped at Drumochter so we could wave at each other (alongside everyone in the train carriage!).
On Friday morning, a beautiful summer’s day, I was dropped off at Ardessie from where I first headed up Sail Mhor and then over to An Teallach. On the summit of Sgurr Fiona I met up with Doug & Rhi who had approached via the classic ridge scramble where they had spotted an eagle chasing a crow. Rhi & I had a quick out and back to Glass Mheall Liath whilst Doug had a great snooze on the summit of Bidein a’ Ghlas Thuill.
Steve and Anna also did the classic An Teallach traverse (a bit ahead of Doug & Rhi) with tactical knee icing on snow patches and stream dip at the bottom.
Fiona M and Alison climbed on Cul Beag.
Claire’s arrival on Friday was “eventful” with a dodgy car, a circuitous bus ride and a lift from one man and his dog and his poorly ram, followed by another one from an archaeologist who serendipitously needed to go to Tesco too before dropping her off at the campsite where she discovered she didn’t bring a tent (and interestingly it’s not the first time Claire arrives at a camping meet without a tent!). Luckily Fiona C had brought 2.
On Saturday, it was still dry but the sun was – at least initially – a bit more hesitant. Claire trotted along the coast from Ardmair, didn’t go up Isle Martin Buttress but did go up the west ridge onto Ben More Coigach and along the tops to the Stac Polly car park to meet Anna and Steve who were climbing there lots of fun routes. Doug and Helen had a long day, also on Stac Polly, where they did a grassy November Groove and Summer Isles Arete direct with Helen; Helen led the short vicious corner crack and they spotted an adder! The evening light was glorious and it was nearly 10pm by the time Doug was back at the hut.
Emma, Kate and Allan went off to Quinag with Emma going over the three Corbetts, Kate two and Allan one. Afterwards they had coffee, tea, sticky toffee pudding and lemon sorbet in Peet’s in Lochinver; and looked at the heronry in the trees behind the grit and salt shed.
Rhi, Nicola, Sophie and myself did a walk with a bit of running on Quinag, too. My legs were very tired, so Allan’s observed “you were flying!” was certainly a blatant exaggeration. On the hill we bumped into Glen, the dog (plus his owner). I had met Glen back in 2018 when we were both bagging Munros. Now we’ve both completed and are climbing up Corbetts! After Quinag we had a glorious but cold dip in Loch Assynt, followed by chilling and tea drinking back at the hut.
Alison and the Fionas did a traverse of Suilven. Initial plans had involved a link-up with Canisp, but the approach took much longer than expected, some of the scrambling was a bit more involved than anticipated and to top it up Fiona M forgot her walking pole halfway up Suilven and had to return to get it. They were then very glad for a lift back from Lochinver by Kenny who had been up Canisp earlier in the day.
The dry weather continued on Sunday, although the clouds were now quite low down. Fiona C, Emma and Kate went up Breabag from near the bone caves while Allan rambled around the glens at the bone caves.
Fiona M and Alison went rock climbing just north of Lochinver, short walk ins and short routes.
Claire, Steve, Nicola, Sophie, Anna, Doug and Helen went to Reiff for some climbing, knitting and stitching with seals and lessons on the difference between shags and cormorants. Claire demonstrated to be smaller than a lamb and burrowed under a fence.
Rhi and I had a lot of scrambly fun (but no views) on Ben More Coigach and tops, followed by a lovely dip at Altandhu.
On Monday, Anna and Steve stayed out on the coast for chilly sea dip and coastal walk, then a hilarious Ullapool gorge scramble, where they had a good mix of slime, falls and random surprise wooden bridges at the end to escape the gorge.
Sophie, Nicola, Doug, Rhi and I had a soggy and viewless walk up Beinn Enaigler, where Doug learned the word “Sitzpinkler”. Claire ran up Beinn Enaigler, failed to find us but did meet Fiona C and Helen on the summit of Meall Doire Faid.
Alison and Fiona M had a good day climbing at Moy.
Kate and Allan walked a bit of “Posties Path” from the car park at the end of the road track at Blughassary. They returned to the little beach at Dun Cannas to collect rubbish, helped by four others who joined us for a while, before spending the night in the Aultguish Inn after coffee and soup in Ullapool.
On Tuesday on the way home Allan and Kate did Little Wyvis from the Ben Wyvis track going up to the ridge just beyond the forest and back. There is a faint path following old metal fence posts to the ridge.
What a great meet in such a stunning part of Scotland!
Martha
