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Beinn a Ghlo

Beinn a Ghlo


Postby GillC » Mon May 17, 2021 7:15 am

Route description: Beinn a' Ghlò

Munros included on this walk: Bràigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain, Càrn Liath (Beinn a' Ghlò), Càrn nan Gabhar

Date walked: 15/05/2021

Time taken: 10 hours

Distance: 23 km

Ascent: 1239m

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These hills were originally planned for last weekend but I think it was rescheduled due to inclement weather. I wouldn’t have made it then as I was a little under the weather and needing some down time but was looking forward to my first hills since Oct 2020 when I was on my SML course summiting Chno Dearg. Lynne hadn’t been able to join us due to a sore (potentially broken) toe. Disappointing but sometimes you need to know when to sit it out. I’d been worrying about my historic foot problems since the neuroma flared up on a Corbett day with Lynne back in Sept. Spent a small fortune this week on light, roomy boots and settled on a pair of Scarpa Mistrals, with Inov8 roclite 345 and Grisport walking shoes as backup lol,the 😀 belt and braces eh!

John and I had recently rushed through a wee camper conversion on the Vivaro and had only managed one night in it so far, so this would be another opportunity to try it out and tweak bits and pieces. I headed off to Blair Atholl on Friday after work. I had overestimated my journey time and was parked up at Loch Moraig an hour before I had expected. This gave me plenty of time to move the van around to get the best spot and views.

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A room with a view


The only other occupant at this point was a wee tent behind the wall but no sign of the inhabitants. I had hoped to park up at the wall but didn’t want to invade their space. Window vents in place, seats turned on their swivels, and relax. :D :D :D
Heather joined me at half 7 on Friday night and we were expecting Martin G to appear the following morning for an 8am start. Lovely to see Heather after the relaxing of lockdown restrictions and looking forward (with some trepidation) to a good day.

Neither of us slept particularly well and we both reported some really strange dreams lol :shock: but sitting in the morning looking out at the little pond we did a spot of bird watching, heron, golden eye, wee red headed grebe type thing, lapwings, lots of pheasants, could hear cuckoo and saw a small raptor and possibly an owl the evening before.

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Our mornings entertainment

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James Bond (GoldenEye)


Booted up and ready to go but no sign of Martin. Decided to leave a note under the wiper saying we had headed off at 8:05am and that he would catch us up but on getting a phone signal as we moved off, got a message saying he wouldn’t make it. So, just us chickens.

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Ready for the off


I first covered these hills back in 2015 and the section from where you leave the track to the bottom of the path up Carn Liath was a complete quagmire. I wasn’t aware of the work that’s been done on the low-level path and was totally overjoyed to see the fab built up sections with gravel and stepping stones. This made it a simple wander across the previously horrendous bog. Reeeeesult. :clap: :clap: :clap:

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The much improved path over to Carn Liath. Bog? What bog?


On starting to climb the rocky path, we could also see areas of work to prevent further erosion, amazing amount of work been done here.

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Admiring the views, and the path below

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The vans parked away off in the distance by the trees.

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Approaching the trig of Carn Liath before the summit


Nothing technical here, keep slogging up and fairly soon, you get to the top of the path with a marker cairn then over past the shelter/trig to the summit of Carn Liath (975mtrs) 2 hrs after setting off.

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Carn Liath

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First summit selfie


Considering its May, the temperatures have been fluctuating and today was a tad chilly up-top so we had a sit down for 10-15 mins in our puffas for a bite to eat and to check in on the phones and enjoy the views. We had been overtaken by some groups on the way up but had the summit to ourselves. We could see some people dotted along the lovely winding ridge path over to the second Munro and headed off around half 10. The weather was holding up, good views around in all directions, great views over to the Braereach and Macdui hills still under a lot of snow and hazy but distant views in all directions.

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Views to the Cairngorms, Macdui and friends


There is a very obvious path from the col at Beinn Mhaol heading back down into Coire na Saobhaidh, more than a stalkers path. Looking over the range to our 3rd summit, a couple of low, dark clouds had gathered and were drifting towards our second summit, we were hoping to get there before it did lol.

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Looking over to the second summit


The ridge between Munros 1 and 2 is a lovely stroll on a good path and after a last pull up the shoulder, less than 2hrs later, we reached the cairn summit of Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain at 1016mtrs. On sitting down and getting the jackets on, we looked over again to our next target and lo and behold, the dark clouds had simply vanished.

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Second Munro, 149 for Heather

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Just me on the second summit


Another 15 -20 mins here then pack up and wandered down to the 993 mtr mark before heading east again and dropping in to the Bealach an Fhioda (847mtrs) .

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The path ahead dropping to Fhiodha before ascending towards Carn nan Gabhar


We could see people dotted around the paths and coming down to start their descent from Fhioda and we had a discussion about taking the alternative descent off Airgiod Bheinn, but were leaning towards the normal route down the glen underneath it instead.

A very short but steep enough pull up brought us to the edge of the rock strewn Bheinn a Ghlo massif and the way across from cairn to trig to summit. The rocks make for some fiddly stuff, but nothing mad, just watch your ankles. Reached the big boxy cairn at the summit (1121mtrs) by 2:15pm .

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Finding some snow we could actually get to

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Munro 150 in sight now for Heather

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150!!! Well done Heather


Heather was now standing on her 150th Munro. 😊

Our day so far had been sectioned up into roughly 2 hrs slots between key points and we were pretty much on target timewise. We were in no hurry and as this was the first time I’d been on a hill in 7 months, I was MORE than happy with my progress so far. Chatted to 2 blokes on top then sat around on our own for about 45mins, not often its pleasant enough on a hill summit to do that. Lol

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Heading off


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The view from our 3rd Munro of the day, looking back to the other 2.

Reverted to the decision to head down under Airgiod B instead of risking the steep descent on the front and headed off Carn nan Gabhar just after 3pm for the loooooong walk home. Passed a couple with a german shepherd dog approaching the summit.

The path down gets very wet and boggy near the bottom of the glen and we had to make a few short detours to avoid the worst of the brown sticky stuff.

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Muddy on the way down Fhiodha

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Waiting for a slip up


This would have been a lot worse during a rainy spell, but we managed without much trouble. We could see the developed path over and below the other side of the Allt na Beinne Bige burn. Heading down, we crossed the burn and on down to the path, better under foot and no heather to kick through. Again, this path has had some work and goes much further up the glen the previously. We could also see the path coming down under Carn Liath that we had noticed earler. Trailed down and reached the bottom and the main track down to Loch Moraig again. The couple with the dog arrived down shortly after, poor dog looked a bit fazed.

From here we could also see some deer appear on the lower slopes of Beinn Bheag, certainly 8-10 visible and they seemed to be moving down the hill towards us.

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Deer oh deer, oh deer


Nothing for it here but to trudge on and on and on, passing fields of cows and wee calves and on a bit more until the loch and the parking area came into view.

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A wee cutey...or a veal escalope,,,depends on your point of view


Heather had sent a message to David Main who was travelling to the Lawers range to pop in on his way past, signals were a bit scrappy and we didn’t know if it had gone through.

A few spots of rain had become a little more persistent on the last stretch so we had our jackets on but it didn’t need full waterproof coverage at this point. Back to the van at 6:25pm, 10hrs 20 in total with a fair bit of relaxation on the summits. Good enough for us 😊
Dinner on and eating when Heather spotted David’s car coming over the cattle grid. Had a wee half hour with a cuppa and a biccy (sorry I don’t carry milk or sugar David ☹ ) Lovely wee catchup then he headed off for his overnight at Lawers.
Chatting about doing Carn a Chlamain tomorrow, decided to wait to see a) how our legs were and b) would the now heavy rain still be on, Watch this space.

Fabulous day out, thoroughly enjoyed the leg stretch.
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GillC
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Location: Chryston

Re: Beinn a Ghlo

Postby Quincy » Tue May 18, 2021 2:13 pm

Fab report 😀 you forgot about the singing and the bad jokes to pass the time on the way out 😂 or was that day 2!
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Quincy
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Re: Beinn a Ghlo

Postby GillC » Tue May 18, 2021 3:07 pm

Quincy wrote:Fab report 😀 you forgot about the singing and the bad jokes to pass the time on the way out 😂 or was that day 2!


Think i was mentally blocking those bits out lol (said the actress to the Bishop fnar fnar! :lol: :lol: :lol: )
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GillC
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 1662
Munros:64   Corbetts:50
Fionas:32   Donalds:30
Sub 2000:22   Hewitts:5
Wainwrights:1   Islands:22
Joined: May 14, 2010
Location: Chryston

Re: Beinn a Ghlo

Postby aaquater » Tue May 18, 2021 5:35 pm

Went there in 2017, and the ground below Carn Liath was still very much an awful mess; a path like this is much appreciated! (Now all that's left is to drag the new descent path all the way up to Bealach an Fhiodha...)
aaquater
 
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Re: Beinn a Ghlo

Postby GillC » Tue May 18, 2021 7:48 pm

aaquater wrote: (Now all that's left is to drag the new descent path all the way up to Bealach an Fhiodha...)


That would make a HUGE difference lol
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GillC
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 1662
Munros:64   Corbetts:50
Fionas:32   Donalds:30
Sub 2000:22   Hewitts:5
Wainwrights:1   Islands:22
Joined: May 14, 2010
Location: Chryston

Re: Beinn a Ghlo

Postby PathfinderPaul » Sun Jun 25, 2023 1:24 pm

Great report👍
PathfinderPaul
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Posts: 84
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Re: Beinn a Ghlo

Postby PathfinderPaul » Sun Jun 25, 2023 4:13 pm

Great report👍
PathfinderPaul
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 84
Munros:270   Corbetts:3
Hewitts:123
Wainwrights:74   Islands:15
Joined: Jul 25, 2014
Location: Mold, North Wales
Walk wish-list

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