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In October 2020 I was dispatched on a site visit with a difference. I had climbed a few Marilyns for work, and one or two Corbetts / Grahams, but for this one I would need to climb the mighty Beinn Ìme. To save a little time (and £9 of parking fees), I decided to park at the 160m layby just before all the roadworks at Rest And Be Thankful. Time was of the essence, because if I reached the summit just as a massive cloud descended, the photo basically wouldn't be happening. And if the photo didn't happen, I wasn't even 100% sure if I'd get my fuel expenses...
This layby is just before all the traffic lights and convoys and er stuff. I've seen a load of suggestions for fixing this (tunnels, bridges over Bute and Cowal, massive detours, magically converting the Old Military Road into something fit for the 21st Century), but to me the solutions seems obvious: just build a detour for a couple of miles on the other side of the glen. But then I'm not an engineer, so who knows?
The way up was exactly as the map suggested: a path at the start, a path at the last bit up to the Bealach a' Mhaim, and quite rough ground in between. It's difficult to tell how bad it would normally be, because I was hoofing this massive big tripod up with me...
I was aiming for the dam on the left, but even then there might still be pathless ground beyond it.
Ben Donich beyond the valley.
Finally I reached the dam at 410m, 40 minutes after leaving. This had been absolute agony so far, but I felt it might get even worse due to the pressure of trying to reach the summit before any low cloud arrives.
DO YOU FEEL THE POWER??? OF THE GLADIATORS???
I mean, surely this is pointless.
The Arrochar Alps seem to be full of these little annoying gullies that you have to lob yourself over. I remember this from Beinn Luibhean in 2014. But at least then I didn't have a tripod with me...
To my enormous relief, I reached the proper path in just under 1hr 30mins, with The Cobbler in the background.
I remembered this being very muddy in 2014, but today it was ok. Maybe some volunteers have improved it since then?
Ailsa Craig!
Ok, we might get some long-range views today. This is really quite important for my summit photo.
If anything the weather seemed to be improving now.
Nearly there, nearly there. Don't blow this now.
Yes! Just after 2hrs 30mins from the car.
Right, views are great in all directions. Tripod, tripod, hurry up!
Things started to get really stressful here. The tripod has a kind of steel / metal 'button' that needs to be released to fit the camera onto the top. It was...broken. On top of a Munro, on a rare solo site visit, so I couldn't really ask my boss for help.
I panicked, and just sat the camera manually on top of the tripod (gripping onto both), and took a round. The photos are supposed to be at 20-degree increments, but this was proving tricky since the camera wasn't clipping onto the tripod. In my panic I accidentally changed the settings to night mode, and took three more rounds of completely unusable photos.
A couple of other groups were on the summit, and asked if I needed any help. I politely declined, and took another two rounds after fixing the setting to day mode.
Oh. Oh no. Oh no no no.
Right. See, there WAS a view, ok, and then......
Selfie time, while I wait for the cloud to clear. It will clear, right? There's like £50 riding on this.
Narrator: "But it didn't clear."
Things went a bit meta, as I took some photos of the photos and sent them to my boss. He agreed that the photos on night mode were not usable, but also noticed that the last two rounds were on the wrong ISO setting. That left Round One. I nervously sent a photo of that round, not mentioning the potential faux pas with the tripod. He said Round One was good.
I could have wept with joy. It was 2020, we were all emotional...
Oh that was the other thing, I had botched my battery charge for whatever reason and my phone was nearly dead.
After nearly 1hr 30mins of hoping for the cloud to clear, I gave up and descended by the same route.
I kept looking back to the summit. I was almost relieved to see that it was still covered in cloud. To watch it clear now would have added insult to injury.
Oh this again.
Some old shielings(?), way up in the hills.
It wasn't exactly the most fun hillwalk, given all the calamities with the summit photo (also I'm not a big fan of repeat hillwalks). But a win's a win: it was good to get out of the house, especially with Lockdown 2 (and ultimate Lockdown 3) looming. My boss was happy with the photos, from the only remotely decent round that I took. I got the expenses paid with no issues in the end. And you've got to enjoy any day on the hills, especially the Munros. With what was about to happen, it would end up being my last Munro for *quite* a while...
