Loch Quoich Part 1.

My visit to Scotland last week turned out to be as good as it gets! A traffic free trip saw us arriving at Crainlarich SYHA in the early evening, the weather was excellent and looked settled for the next few days.

The following morning we drove to Loch Quoich pausing at Morrisons in Fort William for fuel and an all day breakfast.

We arrived at Loch Quoich to a wonderful sight, the loch was shining brilliant blue under the cloud free skies, and the surrounding peaks were bathed hazy sunshine. Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich would be our target for the afternoon. The little green book says  830m of up and 10km distance in 3 hours 45 minutes, this, plus the promise of a good stalkers path for most of the up, made it a perfect choice for our first peak of the week.

After parking the car alongside a small wood we walked back to the start of the path which is marked by a small roadside cairn. The stalkers path takes the long south ridge to Sgurr Coire nan Eiricheallach, it then turns westwards and after several ups and downs climbs the final rocky ridge  to the summit of Sgurr a; Mhaoraich.

From the top we descended the south ridge which is quite knobbly at first before opening out onto steep grassy slopes.

This really is a super peak, the path up excellent, it’s beautifully graded, and is very reminiscent of the Alps, particularly the in the way it zig zags past the steeper sections.

So an excellent first day, a brilliant peak, brilliant weather, and brilliant views who could ask for more!