free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
I am 5 foot 2 on a good day and have a reasonably bad fear of heights - in case there are any other scared hobbits out there, I thought it would be useful to start writing walk reports with a specific focus on on things that were difficult/scared me as I don't often see my experience in the walk reports!
From the route description and walk reports I wasn't particularly worried about my height causing any problems with Beinn a' Chochuill or Beinn Eunaich and that was right - a couple of steps on the ascent to Beinn a' Chochuill that would be larger for me than most but tbf that's true if I'm walking in Glasgow city centre. I was a bit worried about the "unpleasantly steep" descent though. One of the many things that sets off my fear of heights is extreme steepness, both in the ascent or descent I feel like am I going to fall over although it's worse in descent as it's easier to see all the ways in which I could roll down a hill to my death.
We met a couple of walkers on the way down who said they'd not come down the main route described by walkhighlands and had carried on to the crags so we thought we'd just see what it looked like when we got there. We ended up taking the main route and it was indeed extremely unpleasant and I was going much slower than my wife. The path is quite stony and loose in places and because it was dry, it was actually easier to walk on the grass. I put my microspikes on - now honestly, I think they are acting like Dumbo's magic feather and the only thing they're doing is making me feel better in situations like this but whatever gets me down the hill without mountain rescue is what I'm going to do.
That all said, it was entirely doable and if I did it again I would choose the same route. It's deeply unpleasant but it's also quite short. I found that the first half was much worse than the second half but my fear is not frequently based in logic so whether that is due to the gradient easing slightly or just my brain getting over itself is unclear.
Most importantly, it was so, so worth it. The views were simply unreal, particularly over to Ben Cruachan but just everywhere. We had excellent visibility and it turned out to be one of my favourite days in the hills so far, so if you're like me and don't have a head for heights then I'd say you really won't like the last bit, but it's completely achievable and you'll be so glad you did it.
