Day 2

The South Glen Shiel Ridge
















































This was our "big day" and I'm glad we were sensible enough to tackle it early on in the week. We tackled the the seven Munros that make up the 14km broad and grassy ridge East to West starting at the Clunie Inn and heading for the car we'd left half way down the glen. The strange thing about the traverse is that the first two Munros are actually further East than the Inn, so the first few hours of the day are spent acttually walking away from the car (which was already a considerable distance away). We attacked the first summit up a more direct off path route to gain height quickly and bagge dthe first two summits, Creag a Mhaim and Druim Shionnach, easily. Aonach air Chirth, Maol Chinn-dearg and Sgurr an Doire Leathain followed, number 5 feeling the hardest push yet. Finally the last two Sgurr an Lochain and Creag nan Damh were summited and we congratulated ourselves on an excellent day in sunshine and stunning views for the entire walk. Earlier on we had me a couple also walking the ridge and offered them a lift back to their car and we now felt compelled to wait for them despite the woman now moving at continental drift speed. Hours ticked by, the light faded and even our deliberate slow pace in descent left us watching the poor knackered woman and her frustrated husband through binoculars from the bottom as she inched painfully down the final slopes. By the time we had shuttled the couple and got back to the campsite it was dark again and the thought of headtorch cooking didn't seem appealing so we stuffed some rolls, cheese and crisps in our faces before collapsing for the night.