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High above the clouds on Ben Tee

High above the clouds on Ben Tee


Postby DaveSan » Sun Jan 16, 2022 11:38 am

Route description: Ben Tee, Kilfinnan

Corbetts included on this walk: Ben Tee

Date walked: 02/09/2021

Time taken: 3.3 hours

Distance: 10 km

Ascent: 911m

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Having read many trip reports, I thought it was about time I actually wrote one myself!
2021 was the year that I kick-started my attempt on climbing all the Corbetts. Prior to this I had very slowly accumulated 48 over a period of 25 years, 18 of those upto 2005 whilst I was concentrating on the Munros and the next 30 in dribs and drabs.
Ben Tee was Corbett #126 and I climbed it on my 8th trip of the year from home in Cumbria. I had spent 4 nights based at Cannich campsite and was now headed for Roybridge for my final night of this trip. My plan was to do the two Innses from Spean Bridge in the afternoon, so as my route took me via Laggan, Ben Tee was the obvious choice for a morning's walk.
I set off early from Cannich on a gloomy morning, with cloud down to about the 700m level, although the forecast was for it to improve later. At the Laggan Swing Bridge, I turned off onto the narrow road to Kilfinnan and parked in the designated parking area at the road-end. I fought my way up through swathes of bracken, all traces of a path seemingly hidden and worked my way up via a few rocky outcrops until I spotted the path on the east side of the Kilfinnan Burn. Soon I was striding along the good path, which was now high above the wooded gorge down on my left. A sharp left took me to a stile over a deer-fence and I was now out on the open moorland, heading NW on a reasonably easy to follow path through grass and heather. Thanks to the dry summer, the ground was mostly dry and I made rapid progress up the gradually ascending slopes. There was still no sign of any improvement in the cloud level but as the path started to turn to the west, the sky above my head suddenly became much brighter and within a minute I was in blazing sunshine with the cloud top just below me - I was experiencing the delights of a cloud inversion - my first for a very long time.
I stopped several times to take photos as I made my way up the final steep slopes to the top.
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View back down the ENE ridge from near the top

I spent over 20 minutes at the top, taking more photos and a few videos, but eventually I had to start my descent - I had more hills to climb! I went back the same way and the cloud quickly dispersed as I lost height and was virtually gone by the time I was back on the path above the Kilfinnan Burn. My luck was in and I found the path down to the car that had evaded me on the way up, and I was soon back at the car and headed for Spean Bridge.
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The summit cairn

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View towards the Mamores and the Grey Corries

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west from summit towards Meall na Teanga and Ben Nevis and the Aonachs on the horizon

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Looking west from summit towards Sron a' Choire Ghairbh

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Kilfinnan Burn and the view SW of outlier peaks heading towards Sron a' Choire Ghairbh
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DaveSan
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 61
Munros:36   Corbetts:221
Fionas:10   Donalds:7
Hewitts:131
Wainwrights:194   
Joined: Jun 27, 2017
Location: Tallentire, Cumbria

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