The weather forecast was not brilliant, so we set out in the morning with the modest objective of reaching the top of SÃ il Liath, the first top of a round of An Teallach done clockwise. We did not take our rope and gear.
The walk-in up Glen Chaorachain from Corrie Hallie felt quite long, I think particularly because you cannot see the hills that you are aiming for very well as you go. Eventually we reached a major cairn where the path split. We started on the smaller, right-hand path to Shenavall, then came off the path to take a line that skirted around Lochan na Brathan and get us to the foot of SÃ il Liath after negotiating stepped rocks. The gradient from there was steep, and being pelted with hail as we went did not help make it pleasant. We reached the shoulder before too long, the platform giving us a great view in between the clouds that kept rolling in.
All this while, we still had not been able to get a proper look at the rest of An Teallach. Once we got to the summit of SÃ il Liath, we waited for a while to see if the mist might clear, but gave up in the end, deciding to head back down the same way. We did get rained on on the way back as well. We did start going further towards Shenavall just to have a look, but had been put off going too far by the miserable weather and headed back out.
The day had served as a recce of the first part of a round of An Teallach from the east, and we had been able to get a look at the entrance to the so-called Great Wilderness, with thoughts of making a trip over to Shenavall and its famous bothy at some point.
The whole of the following day was a complete washout, with blustery winds thrown in. We gave up hope of the weather improving in the west of Scotland. It looked like the situation might be marginally better in the east, so we decided to change tack completely the day after and head over to the Cairngorms.
Map of walk route and nearby peaks
View Sail Liath – Sept 2012 in a larger map