Sgorr Dhonuill and Beinn Dorain
Posted by Sam Harrison on April 1, 2014 at 05:00.
ballachulish glencoe tyndrum western highlands
The weather was looking good in the Western Highlands last weekend and so Lorna, Imogen, Darren and myself made an impromptu decision to make the journey north once more in the hope of some late-season snow. We chose the Strathfillan Wigwams campsite at Tyndrum as a base, being centrally situated making both the Glencoe area and the hills around Tyndrum accessible, whilst being cheaper and much more pleasant then the Red Dead Squirrel campsite in Glencoe. It also boasts "The Room"; an indoor kitchen and seating area to hide away from the bad weather in.
We'd initially thought of a doing a few easy gullies, such as West Gully on Beinn an Dothaidh (I) and a couple of grade II gullies on Beinn Udlaidh, and Saturday's intial plan was to have a look at the former. We knew the snow would be pretty soft and that cornice collapse would be a real risk, but we were hoping to be able to assess these risks at the base of the route. However, after constant rain for most of Friday evening and thick black clouds still looming over most hills in the area on Saturday morning, we decided a much more pleasant option would be to head west for the best weather instead.
It was hence that we arrived in South Ballachulish, hoping that the clouds shrouding Sgorr Dhonuill would lift by the time we'd made our ascent. MWIS' statement that the most western hills would be "cloud free" seemed overly optimistic to say the least. After a pleasant walk up through the forest we arrived at the final ascent to the col separating the two Munros on the horseshoe. There were still some good accumulations of snow here and so we spent some time practising the skills we learnt on our ML course. In particular, the snow was particularly good for sliding on and so we made use of that fact to practise all manner of ice axe arrests.
During this period, the cloud had lifted from our planned summit, Sgorr Dhonuill, and by the time we made the ascent which culminated in a few scrambly steps and a fine snow arete, we were left with some stunning lighting and wonderful expansive views out over Loch Linnhe and the Firth of Lorn, and across to Kingairloch. Our descent was via Sgorr Dhonuill's north-western spur, giving plenty of time to take in these striking views before descending back to South Ballachulish via Gleann a' Choilis.
The weather for Sunday was set to be the same as Saturday, so ostensibly that was good, but we'd lost our faith in MWIS by this point and so had resigned ourselves to a cloudy and windy walk somewhere near Tyndrum. Plan A was to do the Aonach Eagach ridge onto Stob Ghabhar (no, not that Aonach Eagach!), but after a night of our tents being battered by the wind, which wasn't letting up in the morning, we thought perhaps an exposed ridge wasn't the best place to be. Instead, Beinn Dorain was chosen as a "tactical Sunday bag" that had been left over from a trip to Tyndrum a couple of years ago.
We were blown all over the place by the buffetting winds on the way up to the col between Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh, but fortunately these winds became more persistant and hence more predictable on the final few kilometres from the col to the summit; in fact they even died down a bit! Nonetheless, we were glad we decided against the Aonach Eagach in the end. The cloud cleared a little on the descent, but the views weren't as impressive as the previous day's.
Will this be the last hit of Scottish snow for this season? We'll see!
We'd initially thought of a doing a few easy gullies, such as West Gully on Beinn an Dothaidh (I) and a couple of grade II gullies on Beinn Udlaidh, and Saturday's intial plan was to have a look at the former. We knew the snow would be pretty soft and that cornice collapse would be a real risk, but we were hoping to be able to assess these risks at the base of the route. However, after constant rain for most of Friday evening and thick black clouds still looming over most hills in the area on Saturday morning, we decided a much more pleasant option would be to head west for the best weather instead.
It was hence that we arrived in South Ballachulish, hoping that the clouds shrouding Sgorr Dhonuill would lift by the time we'd made our ascent. MWIS' statement that the most western hills would be "cloud free" seemed overly optimistic to say the least. After a pleasant walk up through the forest we arrived at the final ascent to the col separating the two Munros on the horseshoe. There were still some good accumulations of snow here and so we spent some time practising the skills we learnt on our ML course. In particular, the snow was particularly good for sliding on and so we made use of that fact to practise all manner of ice axe arrests.
The impressive summit of Sgorr Dhonuill
During this period, the cloud had lifted from our planned summit, Sgorr Dhonuill, and by the time we made the ascent which culminated in a few scrambly steps and a fine snow arete, we were left with some stunning lighting and wonderful expansive views out over Loch Linnhe and the Firth of Lorn, and across to Kingairloch. Our descent was via Sgorr Dhonuill's north-western spur, giving plenty of time to take in these striking views before descending back to South Ballachulish via Gleann a' Choilis.
Final snow arete onto the summit
Lovely lighting over Loch Linnhe
More of that impressive view!
Looking back on Sgorr Dhonuill
Lorna, Imogen and Darren enjoying the great views and lovely spring-time weather
The weather for Sunday was set to be the same as Saturday, so ostensibly that was good, but we'd lost our faith in MWIS by this point and so had resigned ourselves to a cloudy and windy walk somewhere near Tyndrum. Plan A was to do the Aonach Eagach ridge onto Stob Ghabhar (no, not that Aonach Eagach!), but after a night of our tents being battered by the wind, which wasn't letting up in the morning, we thought perhaps an exposed ridge wasn't the best place to be. Instead, Beinn Dorain was chosen as a "tactical Sunday bag" that had been left over from a trip to Tyndrum a couple of years ago.
We were blown all over the place by the buffetting winds on the way up to the col between Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh, but fortunately these winds became more persistant and hence more predictable on the final few kilometres from the col to the summit; in fact they even died down a bit! Nonetheless, we were glad we decided against the Aonach Eagach in the end. The cloud cleared a little on the descent, but the views weren't as impressive as the previous day's.
Will this be the last hit of Scottish snow for this season? We'll see!
The weather wasn't so great on Sunday! Summit of Beinn Dorain.
The River Orchy at Bridge of Orchy