Stepping up to winter climb
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PASSING round Sail Mhor on the way in to Beinn Eighe’s magnificent Coire Mhic Fhearchair, a huge gully comes into view cleaving the buttress in two.
From the footpath to the top it soars for not far short of a kilometre.
This is Morrison’s Gully, a grade one winter route I wanted to use to access Beinn Eighe’s network of ridges.
An email to Jim Sutherland, a friend who runs nineonesix-guiding in the area, confirmed there were no major difficulties to overcome.
So the Active Outdoors team, along with John’s cousin Rosie, headed off from the main car park in Glen Torridon along the path that divides Liathach and Beinn Eighe.
We made fast progress on the well-surfaced path, covering the five kilometres to the foot of the gully in good time.
I hoped, given a rise in temperature, that there’d be enough snow left for us to climb on. But a view into the north-facing gully soon confirmed I needn’t have worried – and the snow looked to be in perfect condition too.
Leaving the path we made our way up to the snowline over rough ground and sat down to gear up, admiring the view across to the Flowerdale Corbetts of Beinn an Eoin and Baosbheinn.
Crampons on and ice axes at the ready, the ascent began and we soon discovered that the remaining snow in the gully had hardened to solid névé. Sustained crampon work on this sort of surface can be tiring, so technique is important to ease the strain on the legs – and the lungs!
With more climbing experience than the others I led the way and did them the favour of being able to use my steps.
The rock scenery in the gully is stunning – bearing a lot of similarities to the Black Spout on Lochnagar. Morrison’s is a bit more sustained, though, so we took breaks where possible to rest.
The névé steepened in the middle, eased again and we were below a final steepening to exit the gully and top out on Sail Mhor.
The shelter of the gully gave way to a blast of wind, so fierce that we considered bailing out into Coire Mhic Fhearchair and returning to the car.
But it eased so we decided to press on to the rock scramble that leads to the summit of Coinneach Mor above the Triple Buttress. The drops on either side of the ridge are impressive so careful foot and hand placements are essential.
From Coinneach Mor the ridge broadens, dropping to a bealach before rising again towards Spidean Coire nan Clach – one of the two Munros on Beinn Eighe.
Rosie decided to call it a day at the bealach and set off down to Glen Torridon, leaving John and me to press on to the Munro.
There’s around a kilometre of ascent to cover and our exertions to this point made the walking a bit of a struggle. Nevertheless we were determined to get there and kept up a steady pace.
A short scramble leads to the top and an incredible view, though a haze deprived us of the best of it. Beinn Eighe is such a complex mountain and I think that’s what ranks it above the other Torridon Munros for me, impressive though they all are.
Further along the main ridge lay the Bodaich Dubh pinnacles – the Black Carls. But they were not for today and it was time to go down. From the Munro, a descent south can be made to access a very good path into Glen Torridon, from where it’s a two-kilometre road walk back to the car park.
Snow made downward progress easy with our crampons on again until we reached the path.
The kind offer of a lift along part of the way back was gratefully accepted and we ended a great mountaineering day at the car.
