Sgorr nam Fiannaidh from Loch Leven

Hills - Sgorr nam Fiannaidh

Date - 16 August 2016.

OK, we'll start this one at the end. Here's Caroline and Sadie…

… making their way down the last few yards to where we parked the campervan on the south Loch Leven road. Don't you think that little track looks enticing? The kind of track that hints at a cruisey, guided tour right to the top of a hill? Well, if ever there was a track that flattered but to deceive, it was that one.

It was broiling mid-August, and we'd parked just west of Caolasnacon on the B863. The target was Sgorr nam Fiannaidh. No Aonach Eek!Aaaagh! ridge this time. I'd done it before, and frankly, I didn't fancy short-roping a small dog along it. Anyway, as always, I wanted a different approach. So when I saw that little track leading up through the trees I thought our luck was in. Two minutes and eighty yards later, when the track came to a stop by a little dam, I realised that we were in for a tough day.

Funny, isn't it, how little we can glean from a map about the precise nature of the real terrain on the hill? You (or at least I) can't tell how wet the ground will be, whether or not that boulder field will be stable or rocky, or what the vegetation will be like. The north ridge of Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, I suspect, is in need of a few deer. Without them in its lower reaches the ridge is mainly hip-high bog myrtle. Hip-high to a human, that is: for Sadie, I reckon it must have been like you or I trying to jog uphill through rhododendron bushes. Yes, I took pity on her and put her in my pack.

A word about the dog. Back in the spring we thought Sadie was on the way out. She'd collapsed in the house and we'd rushed her to the emergency vet. When the vet got out her stethoscope we warned her that Sadie had always had an irregular heart-beat. There was a pause as the vet listened, followed by a stunned observation… 'Wow! - I've never heard anything quite like that before!' The vet couldn't believe that she'd ever done one hill, let alone over two hundred. Sadie recovered, but we still doubted whether she'd be up to any more serious hill walks. Still, she'd coped with the wilds of the Sutherland Mambaland so now we thought we'd try her out on a single Munro. She seemed fine but even so, when the going got tough, and the vegetation got vertiginous, we were happy to give her a lift.

Eventually Sadie was able to come out, when the bog myrtle gave way to heather…

…which was a relative blessing. And the views were certainly a blessing. That's Garbh Bheinn in the background.

You don't need me to tell you…

…what that is on the hazy horizon.

Higher up, the virtues of being on a ridge at last came to the fore. A breeze. And views on both sides. To the west over to the Pap and Ardgour…

…and to the east…

… Meall Garbh and Meall Dearg.

Towards the top the shoulder gets…

…er, rocky. Rattley stuff, I'm afraid.

And eventually to the summit. That's a Bidean…

…over on the other side of the glen.

So there we are. We considered going round by Stob Coire Leith and down to the cat-track by the Allt Gleann a' Chaolais, but I knew the slope down into the coire was steep, and we decided against it. Still, the very fact that we were considering a mile detour just to get on a cat-track might help you gauge what we thought of the way we had just come up. So back down the way we came, looking for every rib of rock…

…that would keep us out of the jungle, and give us a bit more breeze. And if we felt that the heat was stifling five-and-a-bit feet up, what did it feel like down at vegetation level, where Sadie lurks? Too darn hot! - judging by the speed she through herself…

…into the first pool she saw. Hm. Took us about three days to clean her up after that.

Why do we post trip reports? I guess sometimes it's to share views, and sometimes it's to share routes. Well, I'm happy to share the views from this trip, but I'd be wary about encouraging others to share the route. For those with the head for it, the best way of reaching Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, I reckon, is still via the Aonach Eagach.