With a few days forecast of very cold,clear and windless conditions I headed to the NW Highlands and a day on An Teallach-the finest mountain on earth, probably. I set off from Dundonnell at 6am under amazing starlight with the initial thought of climbing Hayfork Gully, the classic grade 1 route in the Glas Toll corrie. But I was thinking maybe too early in the season and not enough build up of snow. So plan B was a traverse of the ridge. Hard snow at 500m and boggy ground lower down was frozen hard. I was on Bidean a Glas Toll for the stupendous view of Sgurr Fiona and the Corrag Buidhe pinnacles in a lovely sunrise. I sat and lingered on the summit. Fab snow cover and crampons all day. The snow beautiful hard neve but some areas just a crust with still some softer layers underneath. Rimed rocks and frozen turf. Another glorious view point on Sgurr Fiona and still no one seen all day. There was only two sets of footprints, from yesterday I guess. I wanted to savour the day so headed NW along the seldom visited Sgurr Creag Eich slender ridge. Wonderful cornices along the entire ridge line. There was a beautiful sunset behind The Fisherfield Forest and Torridon hills from the summit of Sgurr Creag Eich. I headed back down to Ardessie in torchlight and another star studded evening. What a day. What a numpty too- my camera had been left on overnight and dead battery! So only mobile phone photos today. I've traversed An Teallach many, many times and today this ranks as one of the best. If you've never been then go!
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