A'Chralaig & Mullach Fraoch-choire from Glen Shiel

Date 24 October 2016

Hills: A'Chralaig & Mullach Fraoch-choire

Remember the first time you climbed up through a temperature inversion? It's easy to forget just how bizarre it is. Let's face it, it isn't just the temperature that gets inverted - it's all the rules! Normally when we go up it gets colder and murkier, so to climb into warmer, clearer air is the best shock we can have on the hills. Although she's camped above plenty, C had never actually climbed into one.

So there we were, setting off from Loch Clunie on the most unpromising of mornings. Thick mist. Cold. But only a few minutes into the climb of A'Chralaig we had that whiff that something…

…was in the offing.

And here…

…it was!

Visibility suddenly shot up…

…from metres to miles.

Ahead was the top of…

…A'Chralaig.

And looking back…

…were the South Glen Shiel hills.

At the start of 2016 I had suggested a target to C. I've saved a snaking long line of hills, from Sgurr nan Eag on Skye, to Ben Avon in the Cairngorms. However long it takes us (and it may well be done over a few years) I have in mind this Long March to our final Munro. Before we could start on it, though, we would have to complete 14 stray and waif hills dotted around Scotland. This was our target for the year, and with these two hills done today we would have achieved it. In the annals of human endeavour this achievement may not stand tall, but for us it would be tall enough.

Once over A'Chralaig the view opens up…

…to Kintail.

The gnarly bit of ridge…

…awaits. I remember going directly over the top of this stuff in the past, but today it was the skirty path for us. In a word, age.

The cairns of both these hills are pieces of work. Here's the top of the Mullach…

… looking over to Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan.

Gazing down Glen Affric…

…the sky was still clear blue, whilst over to the west…

…were the makings of a weather front. Not that the light lost its magic. I loved this view…

…looking across the flanks of A'Chralaig. And Sgurr na Ciste Dhubh…

…was looking particularly velvety. Just the walk out down An Caorann Mr to come…

…with a few lingering looks backwards.

There is something bitter-sweet about a late October day like this. For us, it was the end of a fantastic summer and autumn of hill days which, bearing in mind our situation with canine coughs and human hips, was beyond anything we could have dreamt of when the season started. Now then, Sgurr nan Eag…