SLIOCH

Coire an Tuill Bhain, Slioch

Hard going in the soft snow above 400m



Sliochs summit clearing at the end of the day



The lonely Loch Fada

The Fisherfield Forest and Loch Fada

The weather forecast a couple of days prior to our trip to the North West Highlands was looking superb, wall to wall sun. Unfortunately weather forecasts change and our trip up to one of the Torridon Munros was mostly cloud and some short, sharp showers of rain below 400m and snow higher up the hill. Slioch is a spectacular hill and enjoys fine views from its summit over to The Fisherfield forest. We did have a few glimpses of the distant hills so not all bad, maybe were getting too used to fine weather! It was great to be back here after so long (another 10 years!) Seems like I'm on a journey of doing all the Munro summits I haven't done for over 10 year again. Slioch is also a Munro I've never done under winter conditions. Today Karen and I certainly had a quality winter day, donning crampons to get up the ice covered road from Kinlochewe to Incheril! Another first. We concluded that the folk of Incheril never bother venturing out over Christmas when its icy. Its a gorgeous walk along the river and Lochside before the climbing into Sloichs eastern corrie, Coire na Sleaghaich. The plan was to do a circuit of the corries ridges but after the long walk in and hard work up the soft snow from 400m this was never going to happen. We settled on the ridge from Sgurr an Tuill Bhain to the summit. The cloud was down to around 900m so views disappeared. Our descent was in darkness from the snowline back along the lochside to make a good 10 hour day, made more beautiful with the crescent moon and clear skies, almost mocking us! The ice was still on the road at Incheril on the way out and by the looks of it the locals hadn't left their cosy houses!