grey corries munros

Dawn brought a brief chill, and a heavy dew that was almost refreshing. Undiscovered Ecuador: Cotacachi and the Guinea Pig Lake. 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 first ascent of Chimborazo from sea to summit? The terrain was tedious and it was hard going. We had booked a climbing guide for the second week, and our aim was to complete the two-day traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye. Nepal earthquake: who should I donate to? His father, Frank Smythe – biography of a Himalayan legend, The volcanoes of Colombia's Los Nevados: the videos. There are 3 munros on this range, this took us to 232/282 non repeated munros. 3 days of guided hillwalking on the Munros in the Grey Corries and nearby. For a few brief minutes it looked like we might be in luck as the clouds parted and the route opened out before us. What a box of mountaineering books tells me about our post-coronavirus future, Learning about the Manang Valley in the early days of the Annapurna Circuit, Ojos del Salado and the Puña de Atacama: the videos, Cool Conversations: experience the mountains during lockdown by social distancing Kenton Cool-style, Revised edition of The Baruntse Adventure available from all good e-bookstores, An interview and audio excerpt from Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo, An audio excerpt from my book Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, What I’m learning from Robert Macfarlane’s reading group about Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, Why the outdoor community should not ignore coronavirus restrictions, Kangchenjunga Base Camps Trek: the videos, Keep safe from coronavirus with namaste, the ‘Nepali handshake’, Introducing Wilderness Prime: a superb introduction to the Great Himalaya Trail, Much ado about yetis: Nepal’s latest tourism blunder, How the Duke of Cornwall stole a footpath and I rediscovered it, BREAKING NEWS: False alarm as climber’s tracking device suggests he is trapped inside toilet tent, The true summit of Manaslu: a long-standing mystery solved, The tragedy of Armero: the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz, Los Nevados: exploring the volcanoes of Colombia’s Cordillera Central, How the Colombian páramo thwarted the Spanish conquistadors, The five days of Colombia's Cocuy Circuit trek on video, A return to the mountains of Colombia, with a volcanic twist, Climbing Cotopaxi: the ‘most beautiful of all the colossal peaks of the Andes’, Review: Touching the Void, on stage in London's West End, Climbing Tungurahua and entering the throat of fire, Paperback of Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo: the perfect gift to slip inside your Christmas stocking, Monte Amaro up the backside: a bittersweet ascent in the Apennines. Nirmal Purja’s ascent of all fourteen 8,000m peaks: why is it controversial? The range includes several of Scotland’s highest peaks including a number of Munros. Required fields are marked *Lively discussion is welcome, but if you think your comment might offend, please read the commenting guidelines before posting. The Helvellyn and Fairfield Horseshoe via Striding Edge, The Snowdon Horseshoe: Britain’s classic hill walk. My second audiobook – Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo, narrated by Philip Battley. The ridge continues westwards at a high level to join Aonach Beag, Aonach Mor, Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis. There are no obvious paths joining the two pairs so navigation is crucial as is the ability to traverse reasonably steep slopes over rough ground, including peat hags. We’d not seen the weather forecast for a couple of days and although the sky was overcast, the clouds were well above the summits and things looked well set for a pleasant ridge walk with decent views. Two strange plants of the Colombian paramo, Cocuy Circuit trek: You say cojones, I say cojines. A northern spur of Stob Coire Easain culminates in Beinn na Socaich (1007m). Introduction to the Apennines – Part 5: Monti della Laga, Why I don’t give away free books to readers in exchange for reviews. Only three of these – Stob Choire Claurigh, Stob Coire an Laoigh and Sgurr Choinnich Mor – are Munros, so for completeness’s sake we would first have to climb the small outlier of Stob Ban (977m, which is also a Munro), then descend nearly 200m to a bealach (col) before climbing back up again to gain the ridge. Are western operators right to complain about cheap Nepali operators on Everest? We turned to the right, descended, then climbed back up to Stob Coire Easain. The Grey Corries are probably seen at their finest from above Spean Bridge with the quartzite rock shimmering in sunshine and framed with the Commando Memorial in the foreground. What's next? This is part 2 of a brace of posts describing a wild camp and hill walking east of Glen Nevis in the Scottish Highlands. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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. Our plan for the day was to climb the Grey Corries on the north side of the valley. That seemed inconceivable now, but could anything be salvaged from our trip? It didn’t look so far away and we were still on track to reach it in good time. It was slow going for my injured ankle and I dropped behind Edita. Humboldt and Boussingault on Chimborazo: how high did they climb? Most commonly known for having the Three Sisters on its northern ridges, this massif – the highest in Glencoe – and its two Munro summits offer exceptional views across the … Why did a Chinese team climb Everest during the coronavirus pandemic? 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. I was able to complete the descent, but at a speed that would have caused a snail to blush. Where are the humorous mountaineering books? 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. In 2016, he set a winter record of just over 23 hours for the gruelling Ramsay Round, a 56-mile, 24-mountain trek which includes the Mamores, the … We’d managed only three out of four summits, but we’d completed a route that enabled us to take one peak at a time. The brief clearing in the clouds wasn’t to last. We stopped behind a rock for sandwiches and a snack. What happened to Alison Hargreaves on K2? The first post described an ascent of the Mamores on the south side of the valley. Putting together an adventure travel kit list, Aconcagua: when returning is better in every way, The Stone Sentinel: return to Aconcagua (as usual), 8 reasons why false summit claims are made, Cho Oyu 2010: Climbing high on steak and kidney pie. Stob Ban (Grey Corries) - Munro (Walkhighlands) Walks . The second day started with the excitement of fording the river. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. The next peak of Stob Choire Claurigh rose across a deep gap, another 200m above our present position. Is Dervla Murphy most admired for her writing or her travelling style? What does the Nepal Mountaineering Association do? After about 200m we emerged beneath the cloud line and we could see the valley below us. Click here to read more about the cookies. The crossing presented few challenges until one of my flip-flops decided to take a swim. To walk the entire ridge, climbing all four Munros makes for a classic British mountain walk. What was the highest mountain in the world before Everest was discovered? Those last 50 metres, Nepal earthquake gets the BBC Panorama treatment. The ridge never drops below 800m and presents a really enjoyable hillwalking challenge. My twisting route took in the Grey Corries, Ben Nevis, and Knoydart and then north to Torridon and the Fannichs. Would you sacrifice a digit for a summit? We’d stopped at just the right time. 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. What’s the highest mountain in the solar system? The Ennerdale Horseshoe: a Lake District gem, Cotopaxi, a short climbing history: a teaser from my next book, Kangchenjunga base camp trek: Oktang and the south side, Kangchenjunga base camp trek: Pangpema and the north side, UK readers: Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest available for less than a quid, In memory of Chongba Sherpa of Tate, a high-altitude superstar, Revised edition of The Manaslu Adventure available from all good e-bookstores, Drohmo Ri, the world’s easiest 6,000m peak? Some of the earliest mountaineers, including Jacques Balmat, who made the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786, were crystal hunters who climbed the mountains looking for precious stones. Far below, in a dark green basin, we could clearly see the five lonely pine trees that marked the position of our camp. An early history of the 8000m peaks: Mummery, Crowley and the Duke of Abruzzi. My new diary The Everest Politics Show is out tomorrow! The Ring of Steall: a Scottish hill walking classic, The only video on YouTube of the whole Antisana climb, In memoriam: Jeremy “Bunter” Anson, who put Twixes on the Himalayan map, My journey along the Great Glen Way on a mountain bike. Eventually, however, we needed to leave the trail, cross the brook at a shallow place with boulders, and head northwest across tussocky bog. Revised several times in the years since, most recently in 2012, the official list now features 282 peaks. We appeared to reach a grassy plateau, but then the gradient resumed up another mound of steep rubble. You don’t have to win the Boardman Tasker Prize to be a no.1 Amazon bestseller. This didn’t happen, so after countless brews of coffee and tea, we started packing away our things at 9.30am. Quartzite is a type of stone formed many moons ago by sandstone that has been heated and compressed by tectonic pressure. Is this the finest view in the Himalayas? 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. 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. But beyond the eastern Mamores to the south-east, the clouds were an ominous dark grey and it looked like rain was heading our way. ‘We have about seven hours of daylight left,’ I said to Edita. Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest out on Monday! An interview with … Mark Horrell (and why not), Monte Camicia and the last snow of spring, Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo: e-book available now to pre-order, Remembering Michelle Pradhan and the Courtyard Hotel, Kathmandu, Putting Chulu Far East on the Nepal trekking map, Pizzo di Camarda: a return to the Apennines, Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo: please give your feedback on my book cover. Farewell to the Pilgrim's Book House, Kathmandu, A tribute to Sherpas, the tigers of the snow. How the sale of England's forests drove me back into politics. Is it OK for mountaineers to miss a puja? The riddle of Snow Lake and the glacier with no outlet, Why a crowdfunded mountain rescue raised $200,000 in under a week, The Guardian prints another self-righteous opinion piece about Everest by some couch potato, Pizzo d’Intermesoli, Gran Sasso’s forgotten sister, Shipton’s mountain travel classics now available as sensibly priced ebooks, Why I don’t give a toss about the BMC renaming itself Climb Britain, The Manaslu Circuit: a bridge lover's paradise, Monte Gorzano, the highest point in Lazio, On summit certificates, liaison officers and funny mountaineering rules, Comparing Hillary’s and Tichy’s ascents of Cho Oyu, Monti Ernici: a taste of the Scottish Highlands a short drive from Rome, Nepal stories: the monk, the witch and the mountain guide, The Chomolungma Diaries now available as a paperback, Why The Economist thinks Mount Everest is so dangerous, Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa - a film review, A long overdue, heroic story of rescue high on Everest. It slackened off in the afternoon, but by then my injured ankle was protesting at the weight. The traverse of the Grey Corries main ridge gives a long and demanding but superb mountain walk. My feet were wetter than a pair of soggy fish swimming in a saucepan of water. Mon 10th: Sgurr Choinnich Mor & Stob Coire an Laoigh (Grey Corries) – there is a “bad step” on SCM so should provide us with some scrambling interest.Very fine ridge walking with Ben Nevis as the backdrop. 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. Is the mountaineer Phil Crampton Richard III's distant relative? We will be including the wonderful Stob … As the rain hammered on the roof of the tent, we appreciated the bottle of wine we’d carried up from Kinlochleven. 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. Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo is OUT NOW, but why did it take so long? This section involved some easy scrambling down boulders and there was one exposed move. The rough vehicle track was flooded in many places and we had to take diversions around the side. ‘If we carry on from here then we’re going to have to do the whole thing.’, ‘It’s enough time, but it’s going to be a long day.’. Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England, from Wasdale. Ascent : 1800m (5910ft) Distance : 25km (16m) By the time we set off again, the rainstorm had reached us and we were deep in cloud. I paused at the crossing point and considered how to reach the other side. Is Prince Harry really going to climb 'Mount' Everest? The Ascent of Rum Doodle vs. Flashing on Everest: is it worth the money? In some ways the weather was going to work in our favour. The Grey Corries are a range of mountains in the West Highlands of Scotland. Sutherland & Caithness. The Cuillin Traverse - to do or not to do? I followed a faint track around the side of a small lochan; then the track turned sharp right to climb up Stob Choire Claurigh’s grassy south ridge. Should you get a refund if your Everest expedition ends early? The ridge continues westwards at a high level to join Aonach Beag, Aonach Mor, Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis. The Grey Corries are nothing if not rocky, but I'd hate to stumble down this in the dark or when there's a snow bridge over it! The Grey Corries are a fantastic range of 12 quartzite peaks – four of which are munros – lying to the east of Aonach Beag in Lochaber. I followed her across. The Everest avalanche: how did it happen? 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. Had we been climbing the Grey Corries today, we’d have had problems getting across. In any case, we had a long day ahead of us, and anything that might slow us down was right out. They made a traverse of the Grey Corries from Stob Choire Claurigh as far as Sgurr Choinnich Mor, prior to returning back along the ridge as far as … Everest is not for climbers - you're joking aren't you! What mountain summit has the world’s longest view? Quilotoa: the easiest way in Ecuador to look into a volcanic crater? But Edita saw no reason to pause; she simply waded across in her shoes. Until now, the edges of the ridge had been steep. Terrain:This route traverses rough, rocky and steep mountain ridges, narrow in places. The crossing point had been transformed into grade VII rapids. 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. 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. 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Joking are n't you soggy fish swimming in a big loop long horizon of peaks is drizzled in previous... Track to reach it in good time shepherd ’ s Hillary Step collapse the! Walk over Caisteil, Stob Coire Cath Na Sine and Stob Choire Claurigh: available for pre-order.! And Knoydart and then ascended the outlier of Stob Choire Claurigh rose across a deep,! That seemed inconceivable now, the rainstorm had reached us and we could manage, reduce! ’ s classic hill walk would have no option to retreat we feasted on as much as.

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