The next year I set out on my first long Munros trip, walking 525 miles from Corrour Station on the West Highland Line to Loch Glascarnoch on the A835 Ullapool road. Why Nepal is the world's best destination for solo trekking, A short history of Nanga Parbat, the Naked German Mountain, Why Altitude Junkies is my choice for the 8000m peaks, How to choose an 8000m peak expedition company, Roar of a thousand tigers; the North Col Wall, First Everest rotation; puja to end all pujas, The modern traveller's obsession with gadgets, The great great grandfather of mountaineering, A short history of Cerro Torre, the world's most controversial mountain. We’d been expecting a deluge, and had brought Crocs and flip-flops for the task. This section involved some easy scrambling down boulders and there was one exposed move. First ascent of Aconcagua: a story of self-inflicted altitude sickness, Why I'm paying Nepal back for the good times, Book review: Sacred Summits by Pete Boardman. The land gradually steepened as we approached the col and we picked a route that skirted above crags. My feet were wetter than a pair of soggy fish swimming in a saucepan of water. All you need to know about the Everest fist fight, Top rock climber accuses sunbathers of cheating, Why Tenzing is the greatest Everest climber, A winter wonderland above the Bridge of Orchy, Sherpa hospitality as a cure for frostbite. Should you get a refund if your Everest expedition ends early? The range includes several of Scotland’s highest peaks including a number of Munros. Highlands. Those last 50 metres, Nepal earthquake gets the BBC Panorama treatment. We could see forested lowlands to the north as two men in red waterproofs overtook us. Then we continued without stopping, over the summit of Stob Coire an Laoigh, our third Munro which we reached just before 3pm. This long horizon of peaks is drizzled in a silver top when viewed from afar. Dreams of Maiella: a shepherd’s life in the Apennines. It was easy to get halfway across by means of a large submerged slab on our side of the river, but the rest was going to involve deeper wading. His father, Frank Smythe – biography of a Himalayan legend, The volcanoes of Colombia's Los Nevados: the videos. An ascent of Imbabura, the dragon-back of Otavalo, Wanda Rutkiewicz: the mountaineer’s Google Doodle, Fuya Fuya, the most exciting mountain in Ecuador. In some ways the weather was going to work in our favour. The range is bounded to the north by the great extent of Leanachan Forest beyond which is Glen Spean and the Great Glen, to the east by the defile of Lairig Leacach and to the south by upper Glen Nevis and the headwaters of the Abhainn Rath. There are 3 munros on this range, this took us to 232/282 non repeated munros. The distance hadn’t looked far from Stob Ban, but it became a tedious slog. Are western operators right to complain about cheap Nepali operators on Everest? We will be including the wonderful Stob … ‘We have about seven hours of daylight left,’ I said to Edita. Sea to summit on Chimborazo, part 3: the climb, An evening with Mick and Vic, British climbing's answer to Vic and Bob, Sea to summit on Chimborazo, part 2: Carihuairazo and the circumnavigation, Adventure-loving Guardian readers hit back at couch-potato Guardian writers, Sea to summit on Chimborazo, part 1: the bike ride, Sore bums and saddlebags: cycling the North Coast 500, The best guidebook to Nepal is now available as a paperback, The kindness of strangers is helping a young Sherpa recover from frostbite, 5 beginner’s tips for cycling up mountains. Tranters Round involves a journey of 36 miles with 20,600 feet of ascent. The sweep of the ridge around Coire Easain becomes obvious as the path drops down to the col. Underfoot the way is getting stonier and rougher. What does the Nepal Mountaineering Association do? World firsts are meaningless, personal firsts are profound. Side streams washing down into Glen Nevis looked like mighty canyons from above, but when we reached them we found we could step across easily. The first post described an ascent of the Mamores on the south side of the valley. The best weather forecast is to look out of your tent, On parasitic climbers; Manaslu's serac maze, A monsoon trek and first foray onto Manaslu, 8 useful web tools for expedition base camp, Drukpa Kunley's Rhubarb: an extraordinary Himalayan vegetable, 5 reasons why Bhutan is *NOT* worth the $200 per day tourist fee, 5 reasons why Bhutan *IS* worth the $200 per day tourist fee, All experience is an arch: a traveller's motto, Backpacker’s Britain: walking guides for people who like it tough, The Rhinogs: Snowdonia’s best kept secret. Flashing on Everest: is it safe or sensible? They can be joined fairly easily in a big loop. How the sale of England's forests drove me back into politics. The ridge continues westwards at a high level to join Aonach Beag, Aonach Mor, Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis. Dougie, Masoud and Dan report that they had a grand but tiring day on the three Munros. I plodded along like a tortoise as Edita shot ahead. A northern spur of Stob Coire Easain culminates in Beinn na Socaich (1007m). The range includes several of Scotland’s highest peaks including a number of Munros. By the time we set off again, the rainstorm had reached us and we were deep in cloud. From west to east the principal peaks of the range are Sgurr Choinnich Beag (963m), Sgurr Choinnich Mor (1094m), Stob Coire Easain (1080m), Stob Coire an Laoigh (1116m), Caisteal (1106m), Stob Coire Cath na Sine (1079m), Stob a' Choire Leith (1105m), Stob Choire Claurigh (the highest peak of the range at 1177m) and Stob Coire na Ceannan (1123m). What's next? Not quite, Introduction to the Apennines – Part 2: Maiella, Archive footage of the 1955 first ascent of Kangchenjunga, Why I’m supporting the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains appeal, A peek inside the Himalayan Database, the archives of Elizabeth Hawley, Introduction to the Apennines – Part 1: Gran Sasso, Everesting on Everest: how mountaineers differ from endurance cyclists, Chimborazo’s role in proving Newton’s theory of gravity, Tomek Mackiewicz and Nanga Parbat: a Shakespearean mountaineering tragedy, Chimborazo Sea to Summit Challenge: the videos, Mountain, The Movie: pornography for outdoor folk, It’s the Everest silly announcement season again. Flashing on Everest: is it worth the money? Safe return doubtful: Was Shackleton's advert apocryphal? The four Munros from Dalrigh, Ben Lui, Beinn a'Chleibh, Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhchraig, are usually completed in two outings. It was slow going for my injured ankle and I dropped behind Edita. This is part 2 of a brace of posts describing a wild camp and hill walking east of Glen Nevis in the Scottish Highlands. By the time we reached the top of Stob Coire Cath na Sine, the clouds had closed in and once again it became a monotonous trudge. Stob Coire Gaibhre (958m) lies to the north of the eastern end of the range whilst Stob Ban (977m) lies to the south of the ridge's eastern end. My second audiobook – Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo, narrated by Philip Battley. What's the world's best mountain for cheating? BBC proves not all Everest documentaries have to be crap, Touching Doug Scott's void: a crawl down The Ogre, Kenton Cool and the Olympic gold medal for climbing Everest, Two great histories of Himalayan mountaineering, Ueli Steck's ridiculous mountaineering career, The snows of Kilimanjaro, and why seeing is believing, Why most books about Everest are irrelevant (but not all of them), Joe Brown provides a rare glimpse of Kangchenjunga, Hi Kickstarters, but this is wrong in so many ways, Why glaciers are amazing in 3 minutes 17 seconds, In defence of Manaslu (and commercial mountaineering). My twisting route took in the Grey Corries, Ben Nevis, and Knoydart and then north to Torridon and the Fannichs. Is this the world’s strangest summit cairn? The Grey Corries are a range of mountains in the West Highlands of Scotland. I used the modern method of navigation, which involves walking a few metres in what you think is the right direction, and seeing if the pin on your favourite mapping app (in this case the OS Maps app) moves the right way. Did Edward Whymper make the first ascent of Carihuairazo? On Friday we tackled the Grey Corries ridge in a long day taking 4 munros along the way. Is it time to boycott the south side of Everest? Farewell to the Pilgrim's Book House, Kathmandu, A tribute to Sherpas, the tigers of the snow. Goddess of Turquoise: my attempt on Cho Oyu, Implementing WordPress for an adventure travel company. Is Prince Harry really going to climb 'Mount' Everest? Its summit cairn was so innocuous that we almost walked right past it without stopping. Poo in the Everest region: is it such a big problem? The rounded silver top of Stob Ban came into view, we found a route across the mass of quartzite rubble that lined its flanks, and we reached the summit of our first Munro at 11.45. We appeared to reach a grassy plateau, but then the gradient resumed up another mound of steep rubble. Nepal earthquake: who should I donate to? Is Dervla Murphy most admired for her writing or her travelling style? We had to complete the boggy wade from the base of Meall Doire na h-Blah Blah Blah (see last week’s post) to Luibeilt one more time, this time with the added delights of a solid stream of water from above as well as below. That seemed inconceivable now, but could anything be salvaged from our trip? Why did a Chinese team climb Everest during the coronavirus pandemic? Battle of the blockbusters: Herzog's Annapurna vs. Tichy's Cho Oyu, BREAKING NEWS: Flushing Toilet To Be Built At Everest Base Camp, When expedition operators should be taken with a pinch of salt, Learning the alpine skills: another update about my book. The ridge never drops below 800m and presents a really enjoyable hillwalking challenge. Required fields are marked *Lively discussion is welcome, but if you think your comment might offend, please read the commenting guidelines before posting. Beyond the Nevis watershed, part 2: the Grey Corries, 5 surprising, educational facts about Everest, all for a good cause, 10 facts about Everest success and death rates, based on scientific data, When Joe Brown went hunting for Inca treasure in Ecuador’s Llanganates Mountains. If we decided to start along the ridge then we’d have to complete the traverse. The rain continued all night and into the morning. We’d stopped at just the right time. Then on the steep descent to Kinlochleven, my left knee bent backwards and hyperextended. The next peak of Stob Choire Claurigh rose across a deep gap, another 200m above our present position. The Lukla flight: is it really that scary? We plodded on. Peak bagging the Cuillin ridge on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, The strange life and death of Kim Chang-ho, An introduction to ExplorersWeb, the adventurers’ website on a new journey, Banished to Room 101: the Inaccessible Pinnacle, The first ever successful Everesting of Everest, Islands in the Snow is now available as a paperback, 7 countries with mountains on their flags, Cycling the North Coast 500: a teaser from my next book, The great Nepal helicopter rescue fraud: an introduction, 5 stepping stones on the path to high altitude, Introduction to the Apennines – Part 3: Abruzzo National Park, Revised digital edition of Islands of the Snow is now available. Ice needles and guinea pigs: acclimatising in Ecuador, The truth about the first Lithuanian ascent of Sgurr a’ Chaorachain, The peat-bog method of training for a big adventure, Some thoughts on hiking in the Dolomites and via ferrata, The long road to Chimborazo on legs and wheels, The Corno Grande and Corno Piccolo traverse, Monte Acquaviva: the Maiella massif from both sides, BREAKING NEWS: British man arrested for Photoshopping pictures of Mount Everest’s Hillary Step, The great Everest self-fulfilling prophecy, Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers is now available as a paperback, Exploring Monti della Laga after the Italian earthquake, Move over Lonely Planet – here are the best travel guidebooks to Nepal, What Ueli Steck meant to ordinary people like me, The fate of Langtang village two years after the Nepal earthquake, For busy executives: the world’s shortest 8,000m peak expedition, Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers has been fully revised in digital format, From wasteland to wonderland: a trek in Langtang. Is mountaineering in Nepal becoming too expensive? We turned to the right, descended, then climbed back up to Stob Coire Easain. A brief introduction to Kilimanjaro’s volcanic crater, The Everest Politics Show is out now in paperback, Kilimanjaro: returning to the crown of Africa, Book review: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. Until now, the edges of the ridge had been steep. The climate zones of Kilimanjaro from space, The story of Gosainkund, the sacred mountain lake, In Ladakh two men tackle climate change by making artificial glaciers, A night on Kilimanjaro’s summit: the videos, Introducing Grant Axe Rawlinson, the human-powered adventurer. Features looked deceptively large in the gloomy light. How does climbing Everest compare with winning a Nobel prize? The mountaineer's most frequently asked question. To be continued… and you can see all my photos from the trip here. The range includes several of Scotland's highest peaks including a number of Munros. The first ascent of the South Face of Aconcagua. My twisting route took in the Grey Corries, Ben Nevis, and Knoydart and then north to Torridon and the Fannichs. I don’t know whether untold riches are available in the Scottish Highlands, but I’d carried a massive pack up from Kinlochleven a couple of days earlier, and I had no intention of lugging a bag of rocks back down again. The journey was a joy, and I was hooked on long distance Munro bagging. The Grey Corries are a group of four Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000ft) that form a natural rocky ridge running south-west from Spean Bridge in the West Highlands of Scotland to Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest peak. It didn’t look so far away and we were still on track to reach it in good time. We packed up the tent, strapped it to the outside of my pack and began the slow plod back to Kinlochleven at 10.30. A good year to climb Denali (if you're lucky), When the mountain is trying to tell you something, How Mardale came to be flooded and the Lake District drowned in silly names, Everest comes to London: celebrating the 1953 Everest expedition. Then we turned to the left and descended steeply to Bealach Coire Easain. It slackened off in the afternoon, but by then my injured ankle was protesting at the weight. Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England, from Wasdale. October 7, 2020 Trip reports backpacking, grey corries, hill walking, mamores, munro bagging, munros, scotland, scottish highlands, weather, wild camping 0 Comment Our plan for the second day of our backpacking trip beyond Glen Nevis was to climb the Grey Corries … Its surface comprises a mosaic of interlocking quartz crystals that glisten white when viewed in close-up. Grey Corries Dawn was breaking as I drove east from the A82 at Spean Bridge along the south side of the River Spean as far as Corriechoille then the vehicle track going south from this property. Our expert on the region, Ronald Turnbull, shows us some of the magic that can be found on these peaks and in … Free Solo: my review of an Oscar-nominated climbing movie, Salt before breakfast: an ascent of Ojos del Salado, Cerro Vicuñas, the world’s easiest 6,000m peak? Did Chinese climbers reach the summit of Everest in 1960? The Grey Corries from Spean Bridge A train to Spean Bridge then a short cycle will be needed to begin this walk which starts at a rough track near Corriechoille. Why did Harry's Mountain Heroes leave Everest early? This didn’t happen, so after countless brews of coffee and tea, we started packing away our things at 9.30am. Our plan for the day was to climb the Grey Corries on the north side of the valley. 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