Sunrise on Spidean Coire nan Clach - Beinn Eighe
The Beinn Eighe massif in Torridon was designated as Britain's first National Nature Reserve in 1951. The NNR website details how the massif 'embraces a vast area of 48 square kilometres' between Loch Maree and Glen Torridon, 'stretching from loch-side to mountain top', with a 'huge cluster of rugged peaks, ridges and scree-covered slopes' in between. Two of these peaks are Munros, or Scottish peaks over 3,000ft / 914.4m meters high. To the west is Ruadh-stac Mòr above the fantastic Loch Coire Mhic Fearchair, and to the east, at the end of a c2.5km long ridge that includes the Black Carls, is the rocky Spidean Coire nan Clach.
This was my thirteenth ascent of Spidean Coire nan Clach (I used to photograph the Celtman Extreme Triathlon and always made a point of going to the summit). It was the first time I’d chosen to spend the night. After a hot and muggy ascent, I was blessed with a cool breeze on the summit which increased to c.40mph through the night and saw me cooried in beside the trig point at 972/977m with a warm jacket on but no sleeping bag. Sunset and sunrise wasn't the best I imagine it could be for photography but the joy of being alone on top of a Munro never stops. A midnight clamber along the rocky ridge to Spidean Coire nan Clach’s summit was fun - if regrettably too short - as is the continuation of said ridge out to the Black Carls (which I've done before, on an east to west traverse of Beinn Eighe from Kinlochewe - and would highly recommend).
I’d have loved to have stayed out but unfortunately needs pressed and I was back home for work for 9am.
The rocky summit of Spidean Coire nan Clach, a Munro in Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve, Scotland. The prominent notch right of centre is the Black Carls.
Looking east at dawn from the summit of Spidean Coire nan Clach
Looking west from Spidean Coire nan Clach on Beinn Eighe towards Liathach and Ruadh-stac Mòr
View more photos from this trip - Mountain landscape - Beinn Eighe
Postscript - Regrettably, I left a memory card full of the previous night's photos in the car park. <Face palm>. If anyone finds this card and can reconnect me with it, I’d be most grateful. (It’s a black SanDisk Extreme 128GB memory card with gold and red branding)
As with most errors, there’s a story behind this. I’d decided only at 5pm to ascend Beinn Eighe and left at 5.30pm so I could travel the 1.5 hours to get there and reach the summit before sunset. In my rush, I switched camera backpacks, not realising I’d left my spare memory cards in the other one. When I realised this on the summit, after my card was full, it was frustrating but no big deal and I used the backup card I keep in my Nikon D810 so I was able to keep shooting (the camera has two card slots, which I use to create two copies on location for redundancy. Thankfully so, or else I wouldn’t have had any photographs to share).
I’d have driven back but it’s a 120-mile round trip and I’m not seeking work any longer as a photographer so it wasn’t as catastrophic as it would have been. (I’d also had minimal sleep the night before so I decided it wasn’t safe). I therefore chose to post about it instead in various hillwalking forums and will keep my fingers crossed. A lesson was learned though either way and it gives me an excuse to go back and re-shoot the sunset.