free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Checking my Munro diary it showed I had not been up any Munro in the best part of a year - Bens Dubhcraig, Oss and Lui last September, so taking on this round would be something of a test of any residual hill fitness.
The diary also showed that these mountains were some of the earliest I had ever climbed - An Caisteal and Beinn a'Chroin on 5th July 1987 as my second and third ticks, and the other two completely by coincidence on this exact day also in 1987 - 37 years ago to the day. I've added the gps file to show the exact route taken - primarily to show the route from Beinn a'Chroin to the other ridge. Excuse the photos. As I was 'running' this route, I took a small GoPro device that fitted nicely in my running rucksack to see what the results were. 'Not great' is probably the best that can be said, but it saved me carrying anything larger, and I've got 'proper' photos on all of these hill in other occasions anyway.
This was an early start - the first photo taken from the car park area next to the A82 is time stamped at 05:49. The hills look promising, and I like the 'new' path from the car park. Last time I did any of these hills was before the hydro works.
I'm glad I looked at the WalkHighlands walk description for the start, because it has also changed from what I did last time here. Taking the 'new' route further up the track than before, I was soon up onto Twistin Hill. I have managed to get hold of a photo from my 1987 climb here, and tried to match the location today :
It's a lovely ridge in nice weather like this, and I reached the summit at 7:15am. It's a nice obvious route down and on to Beinn a'Chroin, although I don't remember the one minor piece of scrambling being just quite such a stretch as it was this time - maybe that's on me - and I don't remember the furthest summit being quite so far away as it seemed to be today. I blame the mountain for that one!
What a cracking day though. This was the view over to Ben Lomond from the summit of Beinn a'Chroin :
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Now for the route between the two traditional 'pairs'. I'd looked at a lot of walk reports to see how others had tackled this crossing. Some opted to go right of Stob Glas and skirt Coire Earb, carefully dodging the crags. Others went left around this obstacle, choosing the torture of an endless grassy rise. As I looked at the route across to Coire Earb, at first I thought it looked doable, then changed my mind back and forth a few times before erring on the side of caution. Also, a curiously named feature on the map marked as 'The Grips' could be visited when choosing the grassy option. Running down the ridge from Beinn a'Chroin was understandably quicker than the climb up Twistin Hill, but regular stops to consider Coire Earb slowed me down a fair bit. Eventually, after a depressingly large loss of altitude, I crossed over to the bottom of 'The Grips'. And here is my photo, timestamped at 08:33 :
![20240714_083358A.jpg]()
I could just about see the deep gorge, but the camera failed in the direct sunlight from above, something I would be mimicking very shortly. The ascent of the pathless grass slope was interminable. However, a strategy of counting steps in batches of 500 got me there eventually. Dodging a few crags and gullies, I joined the main path from Cruach Ardrain almost bang on 800m (according to my watch).
Beinn Tulaichean, taken shortly before I reached the main path :
Relieved at the comfort of a path rather than long, reedy grass, I headed off to the far Munro, reaching the summit at 09:45, and the views were better than I'd ever had here before, Cruach Ardrain and the newly visible Ben More and Stob Binnien looking a bit moody thanks to my shoddy camera and/or camera work :
Lacking much energy by now, it took me half an hour to get across to Cruach Ardrain, where the views continued :
A final descent - longer than I remembered but with a nice new bridge - took me back to the hydro track and the car park.
A fantastic day on some great hills with even better weather!
