Ladhar Bheinn

     Disputing which are ten finest mountains in Scotland is a popular pasttime hillwalkers. An Teallach, Sgurr Alastair, Laithach and Sgorr na Ciche should be on anyone's list. The argument will occupy your mind as you leave the bothy, cross the bridge beyond it and turn right. Ladhar Bheinn contends for a place on the list but you may not think that while you make the initial unremarkable ascent by numerous zig and zags up a steep hillside through tall bracken. High on the slope, the path crosses a small saddle and traverses right for some distance.
     It is there, at the end of the traverse, that the mountain springs a surprise. Normally, when you approach a corrie, its treasures are revealed to you bit by bit as you climb over the curving threshold. But this approach to Ladhar Bheinn by Coire Dhorrcail is different. You round a corner and it spreads its great array of cliffs and peaks before you. The river which drains the corrie rumbles and rushes in the gorge far below. Listen carefully and you may also hear the throaty croak of the raven circling in the blue above. If your taste in music is for something a little more fortissimo, then wait, it may be along shortly. If it's a fine day, those other mountain visitors are sure to be about and when they come, you will not be able to hear anything else. Jet fighters use this place for more than training. They show off like toreadors. They skim the ridges, flip upside-down as they cross the corrie and flip back again, in the nick of time, before shaving the crags.
     Two routes to the summit are on offer and these can be combined to do the complete horseshoe. On a clear day both routes are simple and obvious. Following the main watercourse, pass to the right (West) of a steep spur which splits the main corrie away from a subsidiary eastern one under the impressive and fluted cliffs of Stob a Chearcail. These crags are not only precipitous but bright green. The rock here tends to disappoint rock-climbers by being very vegetatious in places. Ascend steep slopes to the Beallach Dhorrcail and gain the East ridge which is broad and easy and leads directly to the summit.
     Alternatively, from the entrance to Coire Dhorrcail, go right up an easy but tediously long grass slope to the start of the North ridge which, in its upper parts, becomes narrow and interesting. The mountain is topped like the roof of a house and has three distinct points of which the centre one appears to be the highest. There is a rumour that the eastern end of the ridge is the true top. Since there is little in it, and not much distance between them, the wise do both.
     On a good day Ladhar Bheinn has few rivals as a view point. Photographs seldom do justice. I had a friend who claimed that his wide-angle camera lens was so wide he could take a picture of the back of his own head. I guess you would need something like that to capture the all-surrounding power of the view that assails you on the summit. The western panorama includes the islands of Rhum and Eigg. The Cuillin of Skye are a familiar saw-edge on the near horizon and, on a clear day, the outer isles are visible. To the south Ben More of Mull is easy to spot while in other directions great and familiar whale-back of Ben Nevis, the Torridon hills and the rest, recede in seried ranks like waves on a stormy sea.
     Descend by one of the two routes of ascent. From the Beallach Dhorrcail you can also climb Stob a Chearcail further East but if you do, return to the beallach to descend. Do not try to descend Stob a Chearcail northwards for that route is treacherous especially in the wet. And be warned. In some places hereabouts the rocks are magnetic, so if the weather is not good, take a great deal of care.