Traverse of Chno Dearg and Stob Coire Sgriodain from Fersit

Having opted to drive upto Newtonmore on the Friday this year, and to spend the extra night in the hotel, I was able to get an extra outing in. Feeling fairly tired from the exertions of the previous day, not to forget 3 hours stuck in traffic at Stoke, I didn’t feel great setting out.

I walked on the Saturday with Andy Brown, Peter, John Eadon, and Fred. The weather was a little short of abysmal, I don’t think that any of us particularly enjoyed the walk. Andy drove to Fersit, which sits just south of Tulloch Station on the flanks of Loch Treig. We spent the majority of the walk in the cloud, and the weather was far too warm to permit the snow underfoot to be anything other than slushy. I was much happier underfoot though than I was on Beinn a Bheithir at New Year.

Leaving the car park at Fersit we made our way through some farm buildings, and after being castigated by the farmer for trying to use the wrong gate, we finally gained the hillside. We followed the stream up towards Lochan Coire an Lochain before heading up through a wide gully onto Sron na Garbh – bheinne. Battling away on the ridge in poor visibility we finally found the summit of Stob Coire Sgriodain with a little assistance from Andy’s GPS. We then followed the ridge over the South Top, and down to the coll that sits between Stob Coire Sgriodain and Chno Dearg.

At this point I believe that we tried to ascend from too low a point, and consequently spent a great deal of time pratting about with the GPS trying to find the summit, which we eventually did.

The descent from Chno Dearg is a rather nice gradual slope, and we soon found ourselves out of the cloud and below the snow line, and racing back to watch the rugby.