The 2014 Challenge, day 5: Down (but not out) to Kinlochleven (4)

I returned to my tent, and packed up my camp. Having done so, I wondered briefly whether there was an alternative to beating my way back over Mullach nan Coirean and Meall a' Chaorainn. I studied the map, and decided to try the south-West ridge of hill 917, with a view to joining the West Highland Way at Lairigmor and saving myself a considerable distance. However, this is a convex hill, and as it became steeper and steeper I became more and more concerned about the overnight rain, the wet grass, and the risk of a dangerous glissade. I thought briefly about those emergency snow spikes in my pack - and then I told myself not to be so silly! This was a dangerous descent, and I was not going to make it. So I retreated back up the hill to a safer gradient.

Next, I looked due West, into the corrie. Could I, I wondered, descend into that and follow the stream down? I aimed off towards the stream, and took a good peer down it as far as I could see. It appeared to run in a deep, rocky defile. Not a good idea to follow it down. I backed off and resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to return over Meall a' Chaorainn. I retreated back up the hill until I was clear of the snow fields, then contoured round to the south of Mullach nan Coirean until I regained the ridge linking it to Meall a' Chaorainn. The picture shows the view looking towards Meall a' Chaorainn as I regained the ridge.