Wednesday, 11 November 2015

An Steall Ban and Meall Cumhann

Working with Adrian, Hannah and Kieran from West Highland College today. With a potentially windy forecast we decided not to go too high and went to Meall Cumhann via Steall Meadows. The waterfall was full and foamy cascading down the crags. The rain held off once we began our climb and stayed away until after we returned to Fort William fortunately. We scrambled up the South ridge on slippery rarely travelled mica schist slabs and the rope came out at one stage allowing me to demonstrate Mountain Leader level rope work. We had views from the summit and the breeze wasn't too unfriendly and at the north col with an hour to kill we turned east dropping towards Steall Ruins and looking at classic abseils on a schist slab on the way.
Amazing that there are still lousewort and milkwort still in flower in November and we discussed these, various heathers, alpine ladies mantle, devil's bit scabious, birch and scots pine on our round amongst other things.
 The white spout looking white and spouting
 No waterproofs required now
 Gaining height
 Easy scrambling
 Happy folk
 Ring of Steall behind
 Sunny in the east
 Summit selfie of course
 Kieran about to take off?
 Crag edge
 The quiet side of Ben Nevis
 Kieran wants a picture too
 Angel's wings
 Abseil
The other falls at Steall

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