For many people, especially those with limited time, it's easy to fall back on the honey pots of Ben Nevis, Glencoe and the Cairngorms. But Gary Smith introduces some wild north-west classics to whet your winter appetite.

Over 20 years ago I climbed 'West Coast Boomer' on Beinn Alligan, a route choice based naively on a cool-sounding name. The day blew me away; it was the ultimate winter fix. The excitement of venturing onto the huge boulder-strewn corrie floor to scope the line was like nothing I'd ever experienced; it was a real trip into the unknown. I wrongly - and simplistically - attributed my euphoria to the route's difficulty.



Ten years on, it's a February day and it's been dumping snow across the whole Highlands. I'm again heading towards Beinn Alligan, this time intending to salvage an aborted climbing day with a traverse of the mountain. Instead of taking the conventional circuit over the horns, we sidled round to the north to check out an alternative way up: Deep South Gully. What a gully, the mother of all Scottish gullies. To come across its hidden entrance by a chance decision gave it an almost mystical feel, and plunge-stepping slowly upwards between its sheer walls felt straight from the pages of National Geographic.

The penny dropped. I had just reached the same level of winter nirvana as on my 'West Coast Boomer' day a decade previously. I realised that quality days like these are all about being in the right place at the right time, not the grade, and this marked the beginning of an unshakable enthusiasm for ferreting around the North West Highlands in winter.

There is no particular character that can be associated with the mountains of the North West Highlands. Each individual mountain range is starkly different with a unique topography - the isolated and solitary mountains of Assynt contrast sharply to Glensheil's long serpentine ridges - but there is one unifying trait: space.

For many people, especially those with limited time, it's easy to fall back on the honey pots of Ben Nevis, Glencoe and the Cairngorms - understandable when forums, blogs and avalanche reports provide virtually real-time information. For the contemporary climber or walker, heading north armed with just a weather forecast might seem a bit of a risk - but that's always been part of the adventure. And, despite the Torridonian and Glensheil mountains being little more than an hour from Inverness, there's still the unbelievable likelihood you'll have your mountain to yourself.

So where are these North West adventures? It's not easy doing justice to such a vast area but here are my favourites, each with a distinct quality. They are not 'modern' climbs, more mountaineering excursions, where the interest lies with the aesthetic quality rather than any technical challenge; they are simply great days out. Exploration in the North West isn't dependent on conditions, so head up there when your favourite haunts are unclimbable. Allow curiosity to be your guide and you never know what you might discover.

The gully

I can't understand why Morrison's Gully isn't more popular.

Its ascent involves a visit to the classic Coire Mhic Fhearchair on the north side of Beinn Eighe, and its scale dwarfs virtually everything south of the region. It is the huge cleft in the buttress forming the right-hand gatepost to the corrie; it's so big that - when looking outwards - its walls form a giant picture frame around the distant Letterewe hills. It's a toss-up whether to climb Morrison's (straightforward), or to its left, Lawson Ling & Glover's Route (more impressive scenery but slightly spicier). Both finish on the fine pedestal-like summit of Sàil Mhòr, which juts out into the prehistoric-looking Torridonian landscape. A sweeping, airy saddle then connects to Beinn Eighe's main ridge by way of a short exposed scramble.

The ridge

Moving further north, a mountain to see and then die is An-Teallach.

Could this be the best ridge in Scotland? Maybe. But there's no doubting its claim to be part of one of Scotland's best winter enchainments, when its traverse is combined with an ascent of Constabulary Couloir and a descent of Hayfork Gully. This combination leads you through the magnificent corrie of Toll an Lochain that would otherwise be missed in a normal traverse. Dropping down through Hayfork Gully, it's hard to believe such massive rock architecture has not been sculpted by man.

Mountain and sea

Low-level snow cover in the North West Highlands can bring out a host of rare prizes.

The plum of them all is probably V Gully on Quinag's Barrel Buttress. It's the beginning of another of the area's magical journeys, a foray into a deep, wintry cleft followed by a circuit of easy winter scrambling along broad sandstone ridges overlooking the ocean. Of all the North West's mountains, walking along the crest of Quinag gives by far the greatest sense of being close to the sea. So close that waves from Atlantic swells can easily be seen breaking against the Assynt shoreline.

Space

There is an unquantifiable sense of openness about the summit plateau of Beinn Bhan on the Applecross peninsula.

It's not a particularly high mountain but it is unchallenged for miles in any direction. It sits centrally between Skye and the Islands, the Torridonian mountains and the hills of the Coulin Forest. A timely late arrival at the trig point can give a sublime end to a day. Beinn Bhan also hoasts a contender for the best Grade II ridge in Scotland: the traverse of A Chioch, a narrow and exhilarating spur dropping eastwards from the plateau, separating the otherworldly corries of Coire na Feola and Coire na Poite.

Off the beaten track

Short, sweet and rarely visited are the airy east ridge of Fuar Thol and the southeast spur of Beinn Damph.

A winter journey to climb either of these provides a perception of being ‘out there' that is disproportionate to their technicality (barely reaching grade 1) and their relative lack of remoteness. Both outings involve gaining high untracked corries and on their descent pass beneath and above impressively steep terrain. There's an uncannily big feel to both of these mountains - yet neither have Munro status, which will ensure they never become too popular.

Impregnable

If there could be only one Scottish mountain, it would be Liathach - an impregnable looking chain of peaks that literally towers above the Glen Torridon road. Utterly mesmerising from any aspect, it's well known for its sensational ridge traverse and for some of the best icefall climbing in the UK. It's also home to some fantastic easy winter gullies and scrambles which - when combined with the classic east-west traverse, or an equally good north-south crossing - result in unforgettable winter days.

A mooch around Liathach's northern corries takes you into a truly ancient setting. The unusually symmetrical amphitheatre of Coire Dubh Beag has a somewhat unnatural quality compared to the chaotic, primeval layout of Coire na Caime. The main ridge is accessible via easy snow gullies from each of the northern corries; all are worth the effort. Alternatively the ridge can be gained by a number of devious scrambling lines, outflanking the mountain's sandstone terraces or breaching them via turfy grooves. The best lines being the north spur of Spidean a Choire Leith, via the northern pinnacles of Mullach an Rathain or a weaving assault anywhere on the east buttress.

Garry Smith is a mountain instructor based in Scotland throughout the winter. He is a member of the Mountain Instructors Community – a collaboration of independent instructors providing UK-wide climbing and mountain skills training.

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The Mountain Instructors Community is a collaboration of independent climbing instructors who provide climbing and mountain skills training throughout the UK. Membership is open to any instructor who has gained the Mountaineering Instructor Certificate and who also has breadth to their personal climbing and instructional experience. http://www.themic.org.uk

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