I didn’t intend to activate Quinag I intended to go up to Dunbeath near Wick and finally bag Morven and Smean after I abandoned them in August with a possible fractured rib. Then I had some vacation days to use and the WX looked there would be at least one excellent day. It’s a 4h30 - 5hr drive so it would be drive up afternoon, stay the night, bag summits next day, stay night, drive home and snaffle a bonus summit before WX broke. But many attempts to contact the estate and check on stalking proved fruitless. I was minded to just go up and do them if the estate wont answer calls. But I didn’t.
Instead, I noted the WX for far North West Scotland would be the same but less wind and Quinag is owned by the John Muir Trust so no stalking ever. NC500 has made B&B prices stupid now but there’s a bunkhouse in Lochinver (12 miles away) that had a bed for £35/night. Whilst you may have to share, I was able to get a room to myself for both nights. There are a few places to eat in Lochinver or I could have taken food as the bunkhouse has a full kitchen. It’s the same 4hr3 - 5hr drive. So after a retirement coffee meeting with my now fully retired chum from work (multi munroist) I was away at lunchtime finally arriving at 1830.
The A9 was the A9 but once I got past Garve going NW on the road past Loch Glascarnoch I was somewhat horrified to see Beinn Dearg and An Teallach with very snowy tops. O h heck, no ice axe or crampons with me just some instep crampons. Stop worrying Andy, Quinag is 250m lower than these big hills and the wind is going to be from the South and temps are due to rise but 10C. I suppose I must remember to pack the winter stuff now we are mid way through October. Whilst I hadn’t checked for snow, I did check sunrise/sunset times… 8 mins earlier at Quinag than Edinburgh as it’s further North. Sunset 1700Z and I worked back times from that deadline. Forecast was for mild breeze, wall to wall blue sky and sun from dawn till about 1200Z then high altitude cloud forming. No rain till very late. Both MetOffice and MountainForecast were spot on 110% accurate.
My friend ERNIE paid for fuel, accommodation and meals for my recent Mullwharchar trip and he was paying for this too. There’s about 580miles of driving, 2 nights stay, 2 meals. I had a slap up steak and chips on Monday which really was splendid as a second birthday treat as I hit the ripe age of 63 the other week.
I wanted to set off at 0730Z so I left Lochinver for the 15-20min drive and bootup at 0645Z. I got a bit of a shift on up the deserted road looking at the amazing silhouette of Quinag in the morning gloom. That’s when I remembered deer are a real traffic hazard at dawn and dusk. So I abated my progress and saw a fine stag behind a deer fence about 10m from the road. Phew! Minutes later another stag and then as I turned onto the road to Quinag a hind jumped a fence and was off. That’s probably 1000kg of meat with no traffic sense seen in a few minutes. Easy progress after that.
Into the car park, boots on. I had KX2, 40/30/20 trapped EFHW, 41ft “random” wire, 1:49 and 1:9 match boxes, Iridium modem for spotting if no phone coverage, head-torch (in the bag not car this time), coat, water, KitKats. I was out of the car park at 0735Z. Computer said 1hr50 to Sail Garbh so I allowed 2hrs. Summit at 930Z, max 1hr setup. operate, pack up before the next summit.
It looked like it might be a good day. Quinag illuminated by rising sun looking all red and glorious.
1km up the track and nothing has changed. There is nothing to give you a sense of scale so the hills didn’t seem to get any closer.
Looking back to the car park. The excellent track that the trust has built makes progress simple. Not really sun up yet in the coire.
So why not Spidean Coinich first? I’ve done it in 2019 and on 13cms too. There is a very steep descent down the bealach I’d just climbed from and I really didn’t like the look of the steepness and exposure. So I decided I do the other 2 summits using the path I’d just climbed. A far better move I thought. Well maybe.
There’s no stalking here and from the car park onwards there was continuous roaring from the stags who were announcing their presence to the hinds. It is a wonderous if somewhat creepy noise because it is loud and travels so far. I knew there was a stag near from the noise but I spent 5 mins trying to find him till he moved and I snapped him.
Zoomed and cropped.
The excellent hardcore path built by The John Muir Trust runs for the 1st 2.5km in to the coire. After that it becomes worn grass and the tops of boulders. It then follows a stream and climbs a little. The becomes soft in the peat and splits to the bealach between Spidean Coinich and Sail Garbh. The fork is not obvious till you have missed it then there’s a few hundred metres of this till the stone staircase appears. This makes climbing up to the ridge easy if a bit steep. What you don’t realise is is you have climbed 282m from the car park to the coire headwall without really noticing. There’s 150m up the steep path which, not bragging, didn’t cause me to sweat and you hit the ridge in only 500m horizontal walking. That’s just over 1:3 slope. From here there’s an obvious path up to the summit that is about 450m away and only 105m higher. Simples.
Now it’s important you know how to say Quinag. It’s not kwin-agg. No that would be easy, it is pronounced coo-nya-ck. Why spell it Quinag then? Don’t ask me, the Gaelic name is A’ Chuineag which looks like it sounds. Apparently it means milk pale. I don’t understand why us English have to Anglicise the names and then hide the pronunciation. But it is as it is so you just have to learn how to say them.
The views from 700m in the morning sun were beyond awesome.
Spiddean Coinich GM/NS-051 and subsidiary top. Canisp GM/NS-030 and Suilven GM/NS-060 behind. The loch is Loch Assynt.
More of Loch Assynt and a better view of Suilven. You can also see typical Assynt countryside around the loch, “cnocs and lochans” (say it fast and it rhymes).
The view back to Glas Beinn GM/NS-060 and Ben More (Assynt) GM/NS-009 with the blazing Autumn sun. Yes, one of those days to be up in the hills.
Setup was 40/30/20 trapped endfed, 1:49, KX2, LiFePO, Iridium unit booted and we were away. Well the 4G signal on the summit was better than home, damn silly when you know where you are. But the modem was connected to the satellite network so I used it to spot myself as I had a wild card alert for the 2 summits. I started on 40m SSB which was rubbish. I managed 4 QSO but the band seemed dead. Off to 10m and 3 on the key but it was not quite open. I finished off with 15m CW. I had a time budget of 45mins max. If I was doing a single summit then I could have stayed for 2+hrs but I had about 50min to the next summit. The computer said 1hr50 for this and I did it in 1hr40. But the following sections were slow as you don’t get the views like this every day and I stopped just to look at what I could see.
The return of Mr. Conehead! Sail Gorm GM/NS-045 behind me.
Visual overload occurring! Meall Horn GM/NS-043 on the left, Sabah Beag GM/NS-059, Ben Hope GM/NS-020 (Northen most Munro), the pyramid peak is Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill GM/NS-037 (Rounded Grey Hill of the Coire McDougall), Ben Hee GM/NS-026
Stop, visual cortex damage now happening 
L-R Cape Wrath Marilyns, Foinaven, Arkle, Ben Stack, Ben Hope, Ben Hee, Ben Klibreck and so much more.
Sail Gorm GM/NS-045
South East: Spidean Coinnich GM/NS-051, Canisp GM/NS-030, Suilven GM/NS-060, Cul Mor (Big A**e!) GM/NS-029 and so much more.
I was away now with the views but I had to get a move on. Half a KitKat and back down to where the path comes up from the coire. Then it’s follow the path round some “minor bumps” then it’s up to Sail Gorm. Now I don’t like exposure and I DO NOT DO scrambling. I’d read about the bad-step/ scramble but had fixed it in my mind this was down from Spidean Coinnich…oh how wrong can you be as I was to find out.
The path on the first bump, a little exposed but nothing TBH. Then it drops down to a small bealach and that felt a little more exposed because falling is not an option here, it’s a long way down. But I did it with a touch of adrenalin in my blood.
From here there’s another bump to get around… looks easy enough and the rest of the path looks quite easy, a long gentle climb.
But there is the ledge. You can see the path worn by all the thrill seekers who walk out on to the rocks and have their photo taken standing in the middle of nowhere.
I feel uneasy looking at a picture and was going nowhere near in real life. This is what you see in people’s blogs.
(c) http://travelmademedoit.com
I plodded on, met two young girls speeding back to where I had been and then I found it… the bad step. It looked actually possible which scarred me more… I didn’t just run away. I spent a moment thinking “3 points in contact is good, 17 points in contact is better”. I tried to flow down the rocks as a big pool of honey or such. Fingers, palms, arms, legs, buttocks and feet in contact. There’s 4 or 5 manoeuvrers and I’d done it. I look at it and thought “damn, I’ve actually done, just have to come back up later!”
I happened to catch someone on the step in a photo. The paths comes in from the left and the yellow marks are the 5 bits which are more than step down for me. The blue blob is some dude and if we say he’s 2m tall the total stepping is about 8m. Not that much and there appears to be plenty to hold.
So let’s have the context photo, the bad step area is ringed in yellow. If you fall there’s 15m to the first grassy bit. You wont stop there you’ll roll down the 70deg slope towards the lesser slope and if you don’t stop there it’s 175m almost straight down before the coire headwall starts to curve out.
I got to the bealach so full of adrenalin I was almost shaking. Chocolate calmed me down. I could have done with a dram at this point
After that it was trivial to just follow the rocky path up. As you get to the gentle slope there are fewer rocks and lots more earth and grass. It was over in no time as I was away with the fairies at this point.
Possibly An Cliseam GM/SI-012 on South Harris some 106km away.
At the top I was behind time so a high speed deployment of the same gear and satellite modem. On to 10m first and 12 on SSB followed by 40m SSB which was better than earlier but still poor and another finish on 15m. I worked EA8ASL and EA8DOB on 10m for Africa. Working another continent is always pleasing. I wanted to spend longer operating but there just isn’t enough daylight now so it was closedown after 45mins. Pack up, more chocolate and walk out after photos.
A misty view as the cloud built up looking South. The pole supports the end of the antenna and there’s mountain ridge after ridge after ridge. Maybe Stac Pollaidh in the far distance.
North west from Sabah Beag GM/NS-059, Ben Hope GM/NS-020, Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill GM/NS-037
Foreground Ben Dreavie GM/NS-112, centre middle Ben Stack GM/NS-063, far distance, left of centre Foinaven - Ganu Mor GM/NS-023 and Arkle GM/NS-042 on right.
Mr Conehead no more… a frazzled looking MM0FMF thinking of getting back home!
The rarely photographed Cape Wrath Summits. For many of these you have a very long walk in and maybe overnight stay in the bothy. Awful boggy ground. Or you can take the boat from Durness to the Cape Wrath peninsula. Some of the hardest 1pt summits in GM.
The central dome is Fashaven GM/NS-124, to it’s left is the Northenmost mainland Marilyn, Sgribhis-bheinn GM/NS-139, far left far distance Craeg Riabiach GM/NS-115, in the middle distance is An Socach GM/NS-141
Centre dark hill with a tor is An Grianan GM/NS-121
Centre Farmmeall GM/NS-108 and behind to its right Ghlas-beinn NS-146 (I’ve activated both of these because you are not yet too far North to need the boat.
OK, walk out was the reverse. All I had to do was get to the cairn at the start of the path.
Sail Gorm GM/NS-045
Kylesku bridge… a curved concrete bridge that is 40 years old and replaced a ferry that made the journey North terrible.
Sail Garbh GM/NS-035. You can see the band of brown Torridian Sandstone between Quartzite on top and Lewisian Gneiss at the base.
Glas Bheinn GM-NS044. Glas Bheinn means grey hill.
Ben More (Assynt) GM/NS-009
Spidean Coinich GM/NS-051, now with better sunlight. The route climbs to the top then down to the bealach…
…before you climb up this unnamed subsidiary top then climb down that steep face to climb back up to where I am!
Back at the cairn I had a big drink, finished the chocolate, adjust clothing and bags and walked out. The walk out took longer than it should but was a complete blur. I started at 1415Z and reached the car an 1540Z. Boots off and a can of Red Bull. I can’t believe I did the scrambly bit and have now bagged all 3 peaks Of Quinag with 13cms on one and 2x 10m multipliers on the other. Back to the bunkhouse, long shower and the pub for gammon and chips and some fine beer.
Assynt is just amazing and now I have seen them I have Ben Hee and Glas Bheinn on the list along with Canisp, Cul Mor etc. Suilven is reserved for me and Mrs. FMF to tackle.
Wow!
