by Dave Hewitt » Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:31 pm
I've done all sorts of combinations of these seven hills over the years, but while I've not done all seven together from the Falloch/Crianlarich side I have from the Inverlochraig roadend, and I'm pretty sure it's shorter and less fiddly from there.
I did them E-W, Stob Binnein first, Beinn Chabhair last. Got to Cruach Ardrain via Stob Garbh, then out to Beinn Tulaichean before the longest between-summits stretch out to Beinn a'Chroin. If doing it W-E, I think going from BaC direct to CA probably makes more sense (I've done this on a non-seven day), then out to BT before heading for the big western pair via the interesting stretch between the BT and SG cols. The order I did them in when going E-W felt natural enough, however. Doing them from the south side means that there's the useful glen track out after Beinn Chabhair - a pleasant easy stretch at the end of the day.
Obviously different people will go at different paces, but for me it took a few minutes under 11 hours, with plenty of short stops but only one longish one - 18 mins below Stob Glas on the stretch from BT to BaC. I had intended having lunch on BT itself, but was feeling good there so pushed on a bit to make inroads into the fiddly stretch.
In terms of conditions, I deliberately waited for a guaranteed dry settled day, and with thin high cloud to reduce the amount of direct sunlight. I'd had a previous attempt on a pure scorcher akin to what we've been having this week, but knew even before Stob Garbh that I wasn't up for it, and simply settled for the four eastern Munros. On the day when I managed all seven, I felt fine after the second big ascent, up on to CA, and was pretty confident that it was doable from there. Given the conditions, I took very little by way of spare clothing - just a thin runner's cag (not that I did any running), a pair of gloves and a hat. Plenty of fluids and snacks, but very little weight in the rucksack really.
Not sure how often you've been on those hills before (your Munro counter says just one overall but that could be wrong), but a fair amount of recceing would help on the sections between the standard groups of 2:2:3 hills. From what you say, you'll be camping and splitting it over two days - so that ought to be easier than doing the whole bunch as a daytrip, but if you're hauling luggage over all the tops then it might actually be harder. Good luck with whatever you end up doing, anyway - it's a fine and underrated group of hills.
