Ruadh Stac Mor

After my failure on An Riabhaichan in March, I was keen to re-start the Munros - I had been out runnign and cycling and my hernia repair was fully recovered. With some time off, I decided to head to the North-West and with a decent forecast, Fisherfield was front of mind. Indeed, the last success Munro-wise was A Mhaighdean, that most splendid of hills. Could this experience beat it? The plan was to walk in from Poolewe, an area I hadn't experienced before. That in itself was exciting, and although the drive was long, I was in the wee parking area for noon. That gave me a good 9 hours of light to hit the Munro and get back down to wherever I camped. 

As I set off, it was unseasonably chilly and as I moved further East it felt like some sea haar was accompanying me. Virtually no views and clag level was down to about 1000 ft. This wouldn't do but I had confidence that things would improve and so it proved. I had walked the first 10km in 2 hours and was flying along. At this point, the cliffs of Beinn Airigh Charr were coming into view, and as the day warmed up, so was the mightily impressive arena of Fisherfield - I could now begin to see across the bastion of rock that surrounded Fionn Loch and Dubh Loch. After another hour of walking, I reached the causeway. There is something about reading certain points in hill environments and seeing them. 

Just past the causeway, I set up camp and the first blue in the sky was popping through. From here, I estimated it was a good 5 mile climb up to Ruadh Stac Mor. I left camp at 1515 and enjoyed the easy climb up to the bealach - the views now were outstanding. 

Once up to the wee lochain past Carnan Ban, I wend my way up towards the bealach between RSM and A Mhaighdean. From here, the views were quite incredible - what a place!

There was still a fair bit of snow on the North facing slope/ridge of AM. The temperature had really dropped and I donned some warmer clothing for the final climb up Ruadh Stac Mor - I was surprised how exposed some of the climbing was but reached the top quite quickly and it felt great being back in Fisherfield for the final Munro summit. 

Rather than head down the same way, I headed North and negotiated the boulders on an easier slope. Although a little tricky, it wasn't long before I was down near Lochan a Braghad and I walked back round to meet up with the path near Fuar Loch Mor. The descent back to camp was beautiful and once back at camp for 1915, all that remained was to get dinner cooking, a wee dram, and to chill out in my tent listening to birdsong and the lapping of the loch waves. The following day, i would wake at 0600, have breakfast and pack up only to walk the 17km back to the car in a little under 4 hours. Fisherfield - there's nowhere like it.