Munro Diary: 162. Beinn Sgritheall (183). 19/05/2014

Staying near Dornie, the drive round to Loch Hourn is very picturesque and we had a great day for it. The 5 sisters were looking good from the Mam-Rattagan pass and the views over to Knoydart from the ascent weren't too bad either.

There was a good path up from Arnisdale, but since we were starting from sea-level, height was gained rapidly - perhaps a little too rapidly for the pregnant Hilde. We therefore had to go steadily, particularly the last climb on the ridge, where we perhaps didn't find the best route and ended up scrambling on the scree. Nevertheless, we made it up to the top in about 3 hours and enjoyed great views in very calm and sunny conditions. Skye and the small isles were all visible, as well as all the hills between Torridon and Knoydart and beyond. This is a great hill for some great west-coast views.

An interesting event just before we reached the summit was bumping into Dr Jon Middleton, who is from Cambridge and with whom I'd climbed many a hill in the past - quite a coincidence. Also, we spent some of the climb in trail-mix tasting - we were trying the banana/peanut/sun blush raisin blend and it scored fairly highly.

The descent was quite long to the west and after a while I ran on ahead to grab the car so that we didn't all have to do the last plod along the road. The route took us about 6 hours all told, but we did spend a while at the top since it was so clement.