A Winter Traverse of Beinn Alligin

We were lucky enough to get another good weather forecast so headed out for another fantastic day in the hills. Due to having an injured shoulder I abandoned my plans to climb on Beinn Eighe and decided to go mountaineering and join some of my friends on a traverse of Beinn Alligin. In the end we were three groups of four and apart from a holdup after the first horn stayed as separate groups all day.

We managed to end up being the last group out which meant a lie in which was very appreciated. On the drive over I was a tad concerned that it might not clear as it was drizzling with a low cloud base, but it started to look more optimistic as we drove down the Torridon valley with moonlight reflecting off the loch.

As we were ascending up to the first horn the weather kept improving and we stayed below the cloud base for most of the day. We overtook the middle group on the ascent and just after the third horn we overtook the second group as we were making pretty good time so despite starting last we finished first in 8 hours car to car.

It was a fantastic day with great visibility almost all of the time, not too much wind and fantastic views. The route was good fun with some exposed scrambling and an interesting descent on the first horn. It was hard going on the fresh snow and after we overtook the first group I had a lot trail breaking to do on all the ascents. It was great to see out to the Outer Hebrides and Skye along with all the fantastic views south of Torridon as well as the Torridon hills.