quinag is a group of 3 corbets in assynt area. although the mountains are 'only' corbetts, they have a lot of character, they're a strenuous walking day (that day only the two of us and a party of 3 guys from aberdeen managed to climb all three). because of the shape of this ridge there are about 7 ascents in total..
we struggled to find a spot to start the walk, but there is an unmarked car park (east side of A894, second parking area along this road when coming from south) and of reasonable size.
we left the car park and walked a bit to the south, along the road, there is a bridge over the stream. the path is very clear here.
we followed it a bit, till cairn, then we turned left. path was ok at the beginning, but soon changed into rocky rib. that was pretty good, if not for this rib we would be stuck knee-deep in swamp! although it wasn't very clear whether there was any specific trail/rib/direction we were supposed to take, and we ended up following the rib at first but decided to just head up.
the ground was wet, eroded, rocky - all at once. soon we reached the boulders near creag mhor, and a little cairn/shelter.
at this point it started raining, but just as we managed to put the waterproofs on, it stopped :) lucky!
we negotiated another boulderfield and soon reached our first summit - spidean coinich....
.
.
quinag jest w sumie grupa gorek, sklada sie z 3 corbetow. pomimo ze to 'tylko' corbety a nie munrosy, maja one duzo charakteru, sa wymagajace i skladaja sie na w sumie ciezki dzien w gorach (tego dnia tylko my dwie oraz grupa 3 facetow z aberdeen dala rade wejsc na wszystkie trzy). z powodu ksztaltu grani quinag w sumie mamy chyba 7 podejsc..
nie bylysmy pewne skad zaczac ten trek, ale znalazlysmy nieoznakowane miejsce parkingowe przy drodze A894 (po wschodniej stronie, jest to drugie miejsce ok do zaparkowania, jadac od poludnia, od skrzyzowania z A837)
zostawilysmy wiec tam samochod, przeszlysmy kawalek na poludnie wzdloz drogi by przejsc przez mostek i zaczac w koncu nasz szlak.
sciezka zaczyna sie bardzo dobrze - jest wyrazna i 'zrobiona'. szlysmy nia chwile, do cairna gdzie sciezka sie rozwidla, skrecilysmy tu w lewo.
od tej pory sciezka zmiania sie na 'gorzej', zaczyna sie robic mokro, ale idziemy po takich 'zebrach' skalistych wystajacych z bagiennosci wic jest ok. w pewnej chwili postanowilysmy jednak po prostu 'isc w gore', podloze bylo mokrawe, nieco wyerodowane, nieco skaliste, wszystko naraz. potem jeszcze doszlo wejscie po niewygodnych okraglych kamieniach, ale to juz przed szczytem w sumie.
quinag seen from shores of loch assynt
widok na quinag z brzegow loch assynt
the beginning, we turned left here
poczatek szlaku, tutaj skrecilysmy w lewo
the views are 'tipical assynt' :)
widoki typowo assyntowe :)
spidean coinich comes to view
spidean coinich, nasz pierwszy szczyt
that moment when it rained a bit :) it had its bright side too :)
ta chwila kiedy troche nas zmoczylo... miala tez swoje plusy!
just before last ascent to spidean coinich there is a wee lochan
tuz przed ostatecznym podejsciem na spidean coinich jest male jeziorko
boulderfield of spidean coinich
looking back to where we came from
stamtad przyszlysmy
final push.... / ostani kawalek....
that's the rest of today's walk... not all of it thou!
to reszta naszego 'spaceru', nawet nie cala jeszcze!
loch assynt
again, typical assynt views / znow typowo assyntowo
loch assynt & suilven
spidean coinich
from spidean coinich we descended by a steep path, it took us to a 'baby' arete (nice!) and further 'corbet tops'
ze spidean conich zeszlysmy bardzo stroma sciezka do ponizszej grani, ktora zaprowadzila nas na kolejne szczyty
they don't even have names! / one nawet nie maja nazw...
taking in the views and dramatic sun/cloud changes
loch assynt
lochan bealach cornaidh
looking back to summit of spidean coinich
and looking down!
ok, we are at the bealach a'chornaidh, looking back to the two mountains we've just 'bagged'
widok z bealach a'chornaidh na gorki ktore wlasnie przeszlysmy
sail gharbh (third corbet of quinag)
sail ghorbh (trzeci corbet grupy quinag)
and our next destination - sail ghorm
i nasza nastepna gora - sail ghorm
there was another steep ascent (and some scrambling) before we got to another bealach. this one we liked a lot - nice 'pulpit' rocks !
kolejne strome podejscie i jestesmy na kolejnym siodle. tutaj bardzo nam sie podobalo, fajny taras widokowy-skalkowy
my watching spot for the moment
moj chwilowy punkt fotograficzno-obserwacyjny
ready to go now? :)
suilven
looking back to the no-name ridge
bezimienna gran, a szkoda, byla niezalatwa moglaby miec jakas nazwe...
loch glencoul & the end of sail gharbh
eddrachills bay
loch glencoul
ready to go back.
from sail ghorm we had to retrace our steps over 3 tops to get to the bealach again
gotowe wracac -z sail ghorm musialysmy wrocic do siodla by stamtad wejsc na ostatni szczyt
sail gharbh
glas bhein... looks good too, nope? like a volcano :)
ten tez wyglada niezle co? jak wulkan
on sail gharbh
sail gharbh
the path comes back to the bealach and takes us steeply down, to lochan bealach cornaidh.
it looks worse from afar than it actually is. it's a bit wet but ok.
further, the path runs almost straight ahead to the parking.
sciezka wrocilysmy znow na siodlo i stamtad stromo na dol, do jeziorka. prawde mowiac sciezka z daleka wyglada duzo gorzej niz jest w rzeczywistosci, owszem jest mokrawa, ale spoko
dalej sciezka biegnie prawie prosto do parkingu
that night we camped at achmelvich, but the tide was in, so we didn't have any more big walks that day :)
more info on this walk can be found at
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ullapool/quinag.shtml
