“Gharbh
Bheinn is a magnificent mountain.” (1)
“Gharbh
Bheinn of Ardgour is one of the finest mountains in the western Highlands.” (2)
The
MWIS predicted a “rare benign day” as Storm Gertrude had passed and Storm Henry
was heading towards us, due to arrive that night. Garbh Bheinn was my major objective for the
weekend and the calmer conditions forecast gave me the chance to reach it. We made a relatively early start to catch the
first ferry at Corran and after a short drive to Inversanda we were walking by
just after 9’o’clock.
From
where we were staying at Onich, there is a good view of the mountain when the
weather is cooperative, but there was little chance of seeing it this
weekend. It is as a Corbett that Garbh
Bheinn is best known but it was on my ticklist because of its inclusion in the
TRAIL 100 list and it was my first attempt at a summit listed on my #trail7summits challenge.
The
south-east ridge has a reputation of being “interesting” and with a liberal
coating of snow, that interest became obvious.
Careful route finding was needed to avoid the icy rock steps and we had
to resort to ascending smaller snowed-up gullies, plunging knee-deep to make
progress. As we moved up, I was thinking
that returning this way would be a challenge late in the day as it would mean
reversing some awkward moves.
 |
| the way up - Sron a' Gharbh Choire Mhoir |
Although
there was no particular need to do so, we dug a snow pit and discovered a layer
of graupel about five inches below the top layer of unconsolidated snow. There wasn’t much risk of avalanche as there
were no continuously big areas of snow cover and we were plunging to a level
below the graupel layer. That was lucky
as a consolidated top layer would have given us pause for thought.
We
continued up to the lower summit of Sron a’ Gharbh Choire Mhoir where we had
something to eat and put on our crampons.
Although visibility had not been extensive – good enough to select a
sensible route but poor enough to mask views of hills further afield – a quick
break in the cloud gave us a tantalising view of the Garbh Bheinn cliffs
looming above us.
 |
| ethereal Garbh Bheinn |
A
descent to the col was much easier now that we were wearing spikes, before
picking our way up the final slopes to the top.
We took the obligatory summit photos and made our way back down to the
col where we discussed the way down and agreed that finding a way down Garbh
Choire Mor was a better option as it would lead to a much easier walk out down
Coire an Iubhair.
 |
| Garbh Bheinn summit cliffs with hanging boulder |
Sticking
to the right of the corrie, an opportunity to bumslide down the first couple of
hundred metres was gleefully taken and it saved us quite a bit of time. An inch-deep layer of windslab was sliding
away at the top of the slope but this dissipated as we lost height and the
terrain became slightly rockier. The
rocks brought the fun to a halt and marked the start of footstep roulette, not
knowing whether we would be stepping on rocks below the surface or plunging
thigh-deep. The croak of a ptarmigan
became louder as we were obviously approaching it but its camouflage was hugely
effective and despite looking around the corrie below us, we never saw it.
It
was becoming obviously warmer as we reached the lower slopes with the debris of
many small slough avalanches below the more significant crags. We reached the track but after a mile on the
very boggy, and sometimes indistinct, path we realised that rushing for an
earlier ferry was pointless and we eased off the pace.
It’s
not often that having climbed a mountain I would want to do it again, but I
suspect that a summer ascent in good weather would give a superb day out. Not that today wasn’t, of course !
(1) quoted from “Walking the Corbetts Volume 2: North of
the Great Glen”
author Brian Johnson
publisher Cicerone Press
(2) quoted from “The Corbetts & Other Scottish Hills”
editors Rob Milne & Hamish Brown
publisher Scottish Mountaineering Club
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