LIATHACH
From Spidean a' Choire Leith looking along the ridge towards the next Munro. Photo Colin Matheson
4.8 miles 1291 metres
Start Tuesday 10.57
Spidean a' Choire Leith 11.58
Mullach an Rathain 12.24
Finish 12.46
Squares: green - start, yellow - changeover. Circles summits: green this leg. Map Colin Matheson
Time: Estimated 2.30 Actual 1.49
Alwyn writes:
Waiting in Glen Torridon with the rain pouring down, I decided there was no point in taking the camera. Within five minutes of starting the rain stopped and the skies cleared! Nice to have a short leg after Mullardoch – and what a magnificent mountain!
In the low cloud conditions I decided to take the main track up and judge whether to risk a direct line to the summit from the upper corrie. The path is steep and height is gained very quickly – I felt I was going very strongly up the path and decided to keep to it, reaching the ridge in 42 minutes and the summit in 60.
Although determined to clock a good time on this leg, I was still intensely aware of the sheer presence of the mountain; its towering bulk rising sheer above the glens, enormous heaps of tumbled quarzite blocks piled high upon truncated tiers of torridonian sandstone; the weirdly eroded pinnacles of Am Fasarinen fringing the massive corrie splitting the mountain's northern flank; an exhilarating traverse at speed along the narrow weaving trod below the pinnacles, seemingly suspended directly above the road up the glen almost 3000 feet below. Far reaching vistas across vast sweeps of moorland to the neighbouring stepped ramparts of Beinn Alligin and Maol Chean Dearg. A final bouncing descent over stepped grassy slopes to the changeover with John – what a fantastic run!
Peaks done 75 time taken 3 days 10 hours peaks to go 202
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