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How lucky am I to have friends with canoes who don’t mind if you hijack their plans!
...”We’re off on adventure next weekend – we thought we’d paddle across a loch and climb a mountain. Any ideas?” I was straight in there with “Yes, go down Loch Ericht and climb Ben Alder”. “Would you like to come?” Did I ever!
And so it came about that 5 of us headed up to Dalwhinnie for a couple of nights camping and the goal to climb Ben Alder and Beinn Bheoil with good weather forecast for the bank holiday weekend. But best of all – if you’re going by canoe you can almost literally take the kitchen sink! Our leader – Justine - had a huge pull along holdall referred to as The Kitchen, containing the kind of gadgets and foods you’d never dream of carting in a rucksack for a conventional camping trip! Just chuck it all in – the canoes need ballast!
The plan was that we’d take the vehicles to the water’s edge beside the dam and empty everything ready to set off, but access from the station end seemed to be blocked by vehicles that got there before us
, and the southern approach beyond the railway bridge was barrier-controlled, with no response from the estate office on a Saturday
. We carried our 2 canoes and small mountain of dry sacks the few hundred metres to a spot beside the flume, loaded the canoes and set off by noon with the prospect of 10 miles of paddling down the loch to our destination at the foot of Beinn Bheoil. I had been keen not to go as far as Ben Alder Cottage – which had been suggested originally – a] because I’d read a previous walk report where it had taken the guys 6 hours of hard paddling to get back and I didn’t fancy that! And b] because I was keen to enjoy the most dramatic approaches to Ben Alder up the Long or Short Leachas.
The forecast had been for very little wind, but it was a lot breezier and slightly choppy to start with. That was probably because we were at the end of the long fetch of Loch Ericht, and the wind soon eased back, giving us a nice steady progress through the water – 3 infrequent paddlers and 2 experts keeping us right!
- lunchtime - our first welcome rest!
We stopped for lunch on the rocks, admired the series of impressive estate buildings dotted along the shore including what appears to be a brand new church on a promentary, had a further rest on a bit of a beach, and arrived at our campsite 5 hours later - the mouth of the Allt Ton an Eich. Justine had camped here before, and it was pretty perfect – a nice flat area above a rocky shoreline, a series of lovely swimming pools where the burn entered our little inlet of Loch Ericht, and noone else - that was an added bonus! We were slightly put out to hear the hum of the small power station directly across the loch, but thoughtfully they turned it off later that evening! Ben Alder was hidden by the bulk of Beinn Bheoil, but Carn Dearg was peeping over the 5 kilometres of intervening heather and peatland, with Culra Bothy tucked at its base. We had a sweepstake as to how many tents would be there [and not here]!
The canoes were not only good as a means of transport but came into their own at the campsite too – upside down also a great sofa and preparation surface, whilst on their side a good shelter from the wind! Having arrived early evening we had time for a swim [for the braver souls], a recce of the tomorrow’s route across to Culra, and a leisurely dinner [shhh – no midges would you believe! Noone wanted to even mention it for fear of jinxing the situation!] and reasonably early to sleep.
Sunday morning was a bluebird day – the loch was so still like a mill pond with a perfect reflection of the hills around.
This was looking promising! As we were so close to our destination we didn’t feel the need for an early start, so more swimming and out with the big pans for bacon butties all round. We set off about 10 for a bit of a slog round the base of Beinn Bheoil and a glimpse across to Culra Bothy where we managed to spot 7 tents along the river bank through binoculars, but were later told there were far more hidden by the lie of the land.
Then we turned to the serious business of the day – reaching Ben Alder!
Rounding the shoulder of Beinn Bheoil the Long Leachas and Short Leachas soon came into view, along with the blade of Lancet Edge to the right, and there was still quite a lot of snow hanging off the edges of the plateau. All in all a big wow! Last night when we’d been paddling in we’d had a glimpse of the various ridges, and from that angle the Long Leachas had looked unfeasibly steep, to the point that I’d said I wasn’t sure I’d identified it correctly. “Can’t see us getting up that” I’d thought. But as we met the well made stalker’s path heading for Bealach Breabag and approached the Long Leachas it looked... still steep, but much less intimidating to me. The path forked off to cross the burn conveniently only a hundred metres further on – good navigation so far! It was easy to see why the crossing of the burn is noted as difficult after heavy rain or snow melt, but we made it across without wet feet.
Then to the serious matter of the climb.
No distinct path to start with, but traces that became more defined as the ridge narrowed.
The view across to Lancet Edge kept drawing our attention – you could see the narrow path along the knife blade. Better to concentrate on the job in hand though - lots of nice scrambling on the Long Leachas, with nothing unnerving or particularly exposed and it ended all too soon on the plateau.
A few groups of people here and some fairly extensive areas of snow, but no need for crampons – a point we’d been wondering right up to setting off for the weekend.
A nice walk round the craggy rims of Ben Alder’s series of eastern choires where lots of cornices were ready to break off, and we noted the point where the Short Leachas joins the plateau. Difficult to decide whether that would have been a more exciting scramble – certainly looks a bit steeper in places but my books recommended the Long Leachas on balance. Surprised to find our route along the plateau was quite grassy.
Then the last pull up to the summit a bit more rocky and a short stretch across the snow – snow lying almost into June? Crazy! A great feeling to be on top of Ben Alder at last – one of Scotland’s greatest mountains and a bit of a ‘thing’ in my head. Also always good to stand on a summit in clear visibility and identify all the peaks you’ve climbed running into the horizon. I love how far you can see across Scotland in each direction.
A nice break for lunch in the shelter then off down the southern slopes winding through the crags to the bealach. So glad we hadn’t approached the Ben from this angle – the experience would have been so dull in comparison! We took in the top at Sron Coire nah-Lolaire to enjoy the views down Loch Ericht, then followed the ridge to the top of Beinn Bheoil, while enjoying the magnificant panorama of Ben Alder’s eastern edge to our left.
The second munro provides an easy bonus for the day’s earlier efforts. The ridge north off Beinn Bheoil looked good, but the temptation for us was to head down at the first opportunity to avoid a longer tramp back to our camp over the heather/bog on the lower slopes. We followed the route of the Allt an Reid h Choire all the way down, then made a bee line for the tents. The snow melt had warmed sufficiently on the rocks to make for a lovely post-walk plunge in the pools before dinner.
- one of our own private plunge pools
- sunset over Carn Dearg to top off a brilliant day out
The wind had risen a bit through the day and changed direction to a southerly – nice for walking but not for tomorrow’s plan to sail back down Loch Ericht – it looked as though we’d be blown towards the bank rather than back towards Dalwhinnie! However, we all know the weather can change in a matter of hours so we would wait and see...
- getting ready to leave camp - sad
The following morning after a big fry up we struck camp and Captain Justine took command of the situation. The breeze had dropped a bit and swung a little back round so it was looking okay. We paddled across the loch then lashed one paddle and a piece of driftwood across them to build ourselves a catamaran! 2 walking poles and a ground sheet later we had a sail, and so - under a mixture of sail and paddles – we made our way back to Dalwhinnie.
Despite the sail and an intermittent following breeze it still took us 5 hours to get back. I think we were all suffering from withdrawal – we didn’t want to leave, so hung around a couple of beaches to enjoy the views, catch the sun, and eat our lunch.
At one point the launch boat from the estate motored past us - we probably looked a dubious bunch of ne’er do wells who might need to be escorted off the loch!
All good things come to an end, but what a great introduction to the wonderful wilderness of Ben Alder. I’d certainly recommend going in by canoe. And if you don’t already have your own vessel, then start hanging around the local canoe club and make some useful friends who do!!
