Ascent
The usual route of ascent starts from the minor road between Torridon village and Inveralligin, following the route of the Abhainn Coire Mhic Nobuil (a river), before heading up into the corrie of Coir nan Laogh. Steep grassy slopes then lead to the summit of Tom na Gruagaich. The main ridge of Beinn Alligin is then followed round to the north, leading the hillwalker towards Sgùrr Mhòr. Below the summit of this peak is a deep gash in the hillside known as Eag Dubh, the black notch, one of Beinn Alligin's most recognisable features.
From the summit of Sgùrr Mhòr, it is possible to continue along the ridge, now heading in an easterly direction. The ridge at this point becomes much rockier, and a series of pinnacles known as the "Horns of Alligin" must be negotiated. The horns provide good summer scrambling for those with a head for heights, but in winter they are a much more serious proposition.
An alternative descent, avoiding the horns, can be made by leaving the Beinn Alligin ridge at the col between the two summits (in Gaelic such a feature is known as a "bealach"), where grassy slopes can be followed westwards down into a neighbouring glen. This route is not straightforward under winter conditions.
A great cleft Leum na Caillich cuts into the ridge south of the summit. It is the scar of the most spectacular rockslide or rock avalanche in Britain, which runs out into the corrie of Toll a' Mhadaidh Mor. It occurred around 3750 years ago and is around 3.5 million cubic metres in volume. See Ballantyne CK (2007) in Mass Movements of Great Britain, ed. RG Cooper, JNCC, 111-116.
Read more about this topic: Beinn Alligin
Famous quotes containing the word ascent:
“We are adapted to infinity. We are hard to please, and love nothing which ends: and in nature is no end; but every thing, at the end of one use, is lifted into a superior, and the ascent of these things climbs into daemonic and celestial natures.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I lay awake awhile, watching the ascent of the sparks through the firs, and sometimes their descent in half-extinguished cinders on my blanket. They were as interesting as fireworks, going up in endless, successive crowds, each after an explosion, in an eager, serpentine course, some to five or six rods above the tree-tops before they went out.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)