Carn Bhac and Beinn Lutharn Mhor from Inverey

[RoyF]

I left Stirling at 4.30am and arrived at a surprisingly cool (0.5 degrees) Inverey a couple of hours later. The cycle from Inverey to Altanour Lodge (ruin) proved to be quite challenging. Not sure if this was a side-effect of the early start, the lack of traction from my unsuitably thin tires, or just a general lack of bike fitness. Probably a combination of the three. It was definitely a mistake eating breakfast before the cycle, as the roughness of the track made me feel quite sick throughout the cycle. Putting the physical struggle to one side, it was a nice scenic route and I did get to see a hillside full of deer.

Cycle in from Inverey

The ascent of Carn Bhac was fairly straight-forward, although I did take a sedentary pace as my legs were still feeling the effects of the cycle. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see at the summit, as it was still largely in the clouds.

The walk from Carn Bhac to Beinn Lutharn Mhor was far more challenging. The first km was easy enough, you then head south and have to pick your way through c.3km of peat land. I can imagine this being significantly more challenging during wetter conditions. Once across the peat, I was faced with an extremely steep scree slope. This 200-300m climb was by far the most grueling part of the walk. Not helped by a strong gusting south-westerly wind and an unnecessarily heavy pack. I'm just glad I did the route in this direction, as I would not have liked to have climbed down this section. Once on the ridge I staggered my way into the fierce wind to the summit. I decided to sit down for the first time at this point. However, no sooner had I sat down, the clouds cleared. The unexpected chance to see views from the summit totally re-energised me, so I abandoned the idea of taking a rest and instead took a few quick photos before setting of on the route back to my bike.

Summit of Beinn Lutharn Mhor

You could see the pocket of trees at Altanour lodge from a number of kilometres away. As nice as this view was, with my now glacial pace, I was starting to think it might be a mirage.

With a strong wind behind me, I managed to complete the cycle back to the car in less than half the time it had taken on the way out.

Whilst it felt like I was going very slowly at times, I completed it in a fairly respectable 8hrs 45mins.

Pretty epic first bike and hike munros.