I left early on a summers morning, with food, water, map and suitable clothing. I arrived at the car park at the foot of the mountain early enough for there to be only a few cars visible. I had decided to go up the mountain in the opposite direction to the general way as it meant I could climb to the top, and then descend by a less used route which avoided the difficult bits of the climb - the horns of Alligan.

The climb was easy but fairly tiring. The ground was boggy but the path was visible. I reached the bowl of the Coire an Laoigh with the mountain still to myself. Suddenly I was aware that I was not alone. I had been joined by a very happy spirit. It swooped down to me from the top of the coire and was literally dancing around me beaming joy. I stopped walking to commune with it and was astonished to discover that it was a mountain spirit which I named Tom. The reason for the name was that the first peak I would come to at the top of the coire was Tom na Gruagaich, and I certainly could not pronounce the second part of that.

Tom told me that it was the mountain spirit and was happy that I had come to see its mountain, the most beautiful and gentle of the mountains of Scotland, not like Liathach next door. Liathach had a nasty cruel spirit that lived there, one that hated humans and was known to push them off the top. This information did not please me too much as that was where my husband and brother-in-law had gone to climb. Tom accompanied me as I made a push for the top of the coire, and then for the peak itself. There I stopped to gaze across the landscape and marvel at the view towards Skye. I could write much about that view, but it not the point of the story, Tom is. Together we left the first peak of the Munro and walked towards the second, Sgurr Mhor, past the scar Eag Dhuibh.

Once I reached the second Munro peak I was going to leave the well trodden path so as to avoid the horns of Alligen which would involve climbing, something I would not do alone, the earlier part of the climb had been hill walking rather than mountaineering. The back of Sgurr Mhor went down at a gentle slope to another path that went between Beinn Allingen, Laithach and another mountain that was just under Munro height and ultimately returned to the car park. This was the path I was going to follow. As I descended the gentle slope Tom started to flutter around me, trying to insist I go over the horns. I told it that I was too scared to go on to the horns alone. Tom said it would take care of me. When I insisted on going the other way Tom sighed and left me, saying that there were other climbers on its mountain now who need it.

I carried on down the gentle slope and on to the rock outcroppings. What I had not noticed on the map was the cliff edges (I am not the best of map readers), Actually, I had noticed them but thought that they looked easy. I was wrong. The path was no longer easy to find as a path does not show up on rock and there were no more cairns to mark it. Most people went over the horns so why mark it? I began to get worried as I found myself on giant steps of rock faces and no rope to use to get me down. I tried to climb down a few of the faces and found myself looking down a cliff too large for me to handle . I started to lose it, so I sat down and cried to myself. Then suddenly I noticed that Tom was back with me. Tom soothed and comforted me and encouraged me to go back the way I had come, then along the top of the cliff until I suddenly heard the waterfall I knew I had to find from the map. Tom literally took my hand and led me to the cairn by the waterfall where walkers had to cross it. It had brought me back to the path. Tom said that its beautiful mountain was there for pleasure, not to harm humans, and then left me to follow the path back to the car park