217, 218. An Teallach (Sgurr Fiona (73), Bidean a'Ghlas Thuill (72) (P600 43)). 18/06/2021

With some long June days and good weather, we chose this high-level scramble and it proved a great day out.

The first part of the walk was retracing my steps of 13 years earlier, when staying in Shenavall to climb in the Fisherfields. Just as this path began to descend to Shenavall, another path broke off to the east to climb the slopes of An Teallach. Once above 900m, the scrambling began and the "two 12m pitches" described in the guide books did have a couple of trickier moves and some exposure, but nothing seriously challenging. At one point a helpful climbing guide pointed out the correct line to us, which saved us a bit of thought. We tried to stay to the crest of the ridge where possible, although there were a couple of places where that was a little unnecessary. Towards Lord Berkeley's seat, we poked our heads over the edge to realise the extreme drop on one side, although it was quite straightforward scrambling on the other where we were. It was only after passing this bit that we realised the whole ridge was overhanging the corrie here!

The scrambling section was not particularly long, so we were soon at the top of Sgurr Fiona, from where the walk is straightforward to the second (very close) munro and then an efficient descent into the north-east corrie, from where a path took us back out to the road. Right at the end, we got a little lost in a forest of rhodedendrons, but eventually found a way through and across a river. Overall, the 22km and 1600m of ascent took us 6h30.

Looking forward to the crennelated bit after the initial ascent

Looking back on the first part of the scramble

Ben at the first munro, with Lord Berkeley's Seat in the middle ground and the rest of the ridge beyond

A side view of the whole ridge up to from Bidean