The Long Way Round

When you can only just see the stepping stones under a river in spate, it's time to re-think the route, as two Highland adventurers found out

- FIONA RUSSELL

A WALK to reach two remote Highland mountains was always going to be a long outing. But when my friend Cath and I reached a crux point at a river crossing, we realised it was going to be a much bigger undertaking.

Our plan, mapped as accurately as we could before setting off from Loch Ossian Youth Hostel on the Corrour Estate to the summits of Creag Ghuanach and Beinn na Cloiche, had revealed a route of around 25km (16 miles) close to 1219m (4,000ft) of ascent. At first, we followed a pleasingly easy-going Land Rover track that undulated and descended west and then north-westerly. The morning was bright and patches of blue sky gave us hope that the dry forecast would be correct.

To our left, the wide ridge of Leum Uilleim, a mountain that features on Scotland's list of 222 Corbetts, loomed lonely but majestic amid a vast moorland of grass and heather. Behind us, we looked up at the Munro, Beinn na Lap, one of 282 Scottish mountains with a height of more than 914m (3,000ft).

Ahead, we glimpsed a long, narrow stretch of freshwater, Loch Treig, which glimmered in the weak sun. The track led us along the southern shore of the loch, skirting to the north of two rocky lumps of land before crossing a wooden bridge over a river, Abhainn Rath.

It was a river that we would be paying close attention to as we began the climb of Creag Ghuanach.

Leaving behind an obvious path along Abhainn Rath, which eventually takes walkers to Fort William or the village of Kinlochleven in the west, we zig-zagged steeply uphill on rough terrain, carefully picking a route between crags and over grass, moss and bracken.

We were grateful to be sheltered for the time being from a northerly wind we could hear over the mountain.