by Stuart Blakeley » Fri Jun 03, 2011 8:11 pm
Date walked: 26/03/2011
Time taken: 9 hours
Distance: 14 km
Ascent: 1400m
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We first attempted this group of three (Beinn Heasgarnich & Creag Mhor along with Ben Challum) back on the 28th May 2005. There were quite a few in our group along with 1 new lad who had never been out before with us but assured us he was fit as a fiddle being an ex-forces man.
That day (which was as miserable as you can imagine, we got a good old soaking and very windy) after summiting Beinn Heasgarnich it quickly became clear that the lad was starting to struggle. Our group split up and some went on to complete Creag Mhor but we ended up back at the car after it took us nearly 9 hours just for this one top. Poor lad has never been back out since (with us anyway).
Me and one of our group headed back out to to Creag Mhor. The day before we left, it was brought to our attention that we may not have hit the right cairn 6 yrs ago, so for the avoidance of any doubt, we decided to do the 2 tops again.
Ben Challum was attempted a couple of years ago but we had to abort when we got the to south top and were in a white out and could not see 1 foot in front of us. We had to traverse a ridge with snow cornicing at either side and did not fancy taking any chances. The other lads have since completed Ben Challum but I still have it to do as a single.
So we parked as far along Glen Lochy as we could and headed up the same track as before. Weather was not too bad. Windy but dry'ish. Took is approx 9 hours which was a bit longer than thought but we did stop off a few times.
