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Having not taken anytime off this year so far and the impending WH meet at Roy Bridge I thought it was as good an excuse as any to take a week off and head West-ish; dreadful weather Monday & Tuesday meant I had to crack on with some DIY and painting (brownie points to enable me to head off on a jolly for 5 days I suppose!!). Looking at the Weather reports on the Tuesday it seemed that the weather would be most favourable in at Corrour and I always fancied doing an overnighter taking in the 3 Ossian Munros and doing a camp around the Strathossian area. I headed over the ski road at a very driech Lecht; into Aviemore to pickup some gear before heading down to Roy Bridge to sort out my pack ahead off the walk. I decided to go with my bulkier winter sleeping bag as it was quite chilly (ended up being 4 degrees at Ossian overnight before the rain so I was quite pleased I went with the bulkier/heavier bag which took up most of my 22l sack but there was still enough room for mat, my new laser comp and food/water etc. I took what I thought was a suitable amount of food for a relatively easily round over a night and half day! I parked the car at Roy Bridge and hopped onto the 6pm service into Corrour and was pleased to see a nice evening over Loch Trieg and had a good view from the station at Corrour.
- Ossian
I quickly headed up the faint path/sludgey bog up and up to the ridge along Bienn Na Lap.
- BNL
I made it to the summit in around 1 hour from the station.
- Bienn Na Lap
Rather than heading back down this way I headed along the summit ridge and off to the Strathossian side of the hill; I loved this view and I'll def be back here with the bike.
- Strathossian
The descent was easy going and "relatively" bog free down to the estate track. Great feeling of "remote country" here and I quite fancy renting the lodge which sits at the head of the glen; would be great for a WH meet!
- WH meet!
I took the track which heads back round to the shooting lodge at the north end of Loch Ossian. I was intending to camp by the River Ossian but there were already a few tents there and I thought it would be better to head up towards the next few munros given I had to catch the 15.20 train back to Roy Bridge. I eventually set up camp beside Usige Labhair and got the tent up promptly and got some food down my throat.
- new tent :)
I had a great sleep where i was only awoken a few times by the rain in the middle of the night; I slept in slightly and ended up starting late at around 10ish or so leaving me 5 hours to get the munros and my train; I reckoned it would be relatively straightforward to do it in this timescale. I headed through the non descript, gorsey bogs(!) and began the climb up to Meal Nathrach Mor which took a ridiculously long time due to it being marshy, boggy and generally bloody miserable; as such the sun was also beating down and I was sweating fairly heavily!!!
- UP up up
Once I reached this point; I cut round to the Beleach between Sgurr Choinnich and Sgor Ghaibre. From here it was a quick pull up the side to Sgor Ghaibre.
- Sgor Gaibhre
By now I was looking at my watch and starting to worry about catching the train. I didn't stop for long at the summit; literallly for a few photos of a cracking view to the Alder Range & Loch Ericht before heading off for the next munro; Carn Dearg......At this point I did something really stupid; I clocked "the" next summit ahead of me; seen a faint path through a beleach and headed off believing I was heading to the munro; the map seemed to highlight a few rocky crags and I also seen this in front of me here my brain said something along the lines of "why waste iphone battery checking GPS and why waste time getting the compass out; just get a move on!"
Sadly what I did was I headed along the Sgor Gaibhre tops, dropping down and heading backup and hit the summit of the Corbett Beinn Pharlagain; which I thought was one of the munro tops until I got onto Walkhighlands today!!!!!! It was here where I clocked the mistake and it dawned on me that I had went completely the wrong way and was a long way from the station. From here I panicked a bit and hence the lack of photos from here onwards. I cursed and kicked myself silly for not packing enough food and started heading towards Rannoch station. About ten mins on route to Rannoch I had another change of mind; I've started to develop a wee bit of "bagger" recently and I got greedy. I cut back back, descended down to the Allt Eigheach and painfully ascended/grinded the boggy/steepish slope of Sron Leachd a Chaorainn and began to jog along the ridge to hit Carn Dearg From here I knew I was never catching my 15.20 train as it was sometime around 1pm or so; the only thing on my mind at this point was getting to the station so no photos or "stops". I decided that I could be in luck and the train might run late and I'd kick myself if I took a break on the hill and ended up missing the delayed train so I pushed on anyway descending down to Corrour Old Lodge and speedwalking/jogging along the boggy track towards peters rock before cutting a few k off by traversing a load of bog, mush, gorse and general pain-in-the-arse terrain beside Meall na Lice and proceeded to jog the majority of the way to the station.
- Summit
I caught the train with a few minutes to spare and I was absolutely delighted that I was able to pull this off as I had no energy in the tank whatsoever; quickly forced a few cereal bars down me but I was so wrecked by this point; the food made me feel physically sick. When I thought back to it; I had been going hammer and tongs without rest since I kicked off in the morning. It was a hard shift for me but I was absolutely delighted to be avoiding a 5/6 hour wait at the station for the 9.30 train back to Roy Bridge.
I awarded myself a very large 12oz Sirloin and all the trimmings on a sizzling platter at the Stronlossit; it was delicious and disappeared in my gullet very quickly. Overall I enjoyed the round but I am annoyed at myself for making such basic mistakes in good conditions; I'm also a bit annoyed that I rushed these and I think I'll come back in future and maybe stay at one of the hostels.