Coire Àrdair and the Window - Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve
The cliffs of Coire Àrdair and the snowy bealach called the Window on Creag Meagaidh in Scotland
Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve near Laggan in the West Highlands of Scotland is described by Nature Scot as “the complete mountain experience. From wild mountain plateau to woodland that’s slowly returning to life, Creag Meagaidh feels like the Highlands compressed into one reserve. The dramatic scenery here includes Munro summits, an exposed whaleback ridge and ice-carved gullies”.
Two of these Munro summits - Stob Poite Coire Àrdair and Creag Meagaidh - are separated by Uinneag Coire Ardair (fondly termed of as the Window), a high bealach (pronounced be-a-lach, meaning a low point, between two hills) that lies 950m above sea level. A friend and I were keen to complete our Munro Round (282 hills over 3,000ft / 914.4m high) and we chose to camp at the Window one Winter after climbing Creag Meagaidh’s third Munro, Càrn Liath. We used our shovels to dig into the snow because of strong gales which had cursed us all day, that buffeted us up top and continued as we set up camp, intensifying through the night.
(A useful reminder for me on this trip was, when you use your ice axe as tent peg in Winter, to leave enough of the shaft showing to get it back out in the morning when the snow is frozen solid. I needed to use my friend’s ice axe to release my own axe, which made me realise I was fortunate I wasn’t on my own or else I’d have been waiting for the sun to come up and melt the ice).
