Breaking Trail to Beinn Chabhair

[Andy74G]

I couldn't make my mind up where to walk this time as the chances of a clear summit were only 50/50 on Thursday so I decided to pick a Munro that was closer to home and Beinn Chabhair looked ok. I arrived at the rear car park at the Drovers Inn about 8:45am and was off by 9am. After crossing the field and stream and then the bridge the path up was easy to follow , another walker was ahead of me but out of site but his size 11's were easy to spot in the snow.

Looking back towards the A83

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plenty of ice to look at in places

. Soon I reached the falls but I only stopped briefly for the picture as a long day was ahead.

I never saw much wildlife today but once over the second style on the hill there were plenty of prints in the snow, it was fun to try and work out which belonged to which critter, but I'm no expert and I could only guess. The other walker had taken a different higher route up over Mell Mor nan Eag onto Beinn Chabhair, myself I stuck to the WH route that followed Ben Glas Burn.

No one else had been this way since the snow earlier in the week so it was just a case of walking though the foot or so of snow until I reached the start of the proper assent at the lochan

By now it was about mid day but the weather was still settled and visibility ok, I decided to press on , it wasn't really a day for great picture's and so I'd decided not to bring my large camera to save me carrying extra weight. Crampons and ice axe were needed now to make progress up some of slopes , with deep drifts in places. About 40 mins from the summit I met the only other walker who was making his decent down from the summit and we had a brief chat.

the summit

. By now it was just before 2pm so I decided to have a break once I was further back down, so after such a long trek up, the time on the summit was brief.

selfie further down ( happy face)

Learned today that protein bar's are only going to be any use if there left in the trouser pocket for a while to soften before attempting to eat..

Although it had been a late summit, once off Beinn Chabhair the walk back was a lot easier and quicker through the snow, I reached the campsite as darkness was falling and was back at the car about 5pm , a long day indeed.

[rmarschalek]

Really liked reading your report. just returned from the same mountain yesterday and it was good to compare. took me 8 hours as well. hard going in the soft snow.