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Beinns a' Chochuill & Eunaich With A Bad Toe

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 12:28 am
by mountain coward
On the first day of Richard and my summer trip - just after my post of 'yet another pre-trip injury' I took my bad toe, myself and Richard up Beinns a' Chochuill and Eunaich. The first thing I noticed, as soon as I put my nice, firm walking boots on, was that the toe was gonna be nae bother! :) Still, I treated it carefully and stuck to the softer stuff as much as possible. We fought for one of the remaining parking places on the Stronmilchan road - there were three of us buzzing around one spot - we won and the others ended up parking at a very frightening angle of tip not far away! It was only about 0930 as we'd only been staying up the road near Taynuilt - I was really surprised as we passed the Ben Cruachan parking just how many hordes were heading off up there... still it was a Saturday and promising to be a reasonable day.

We were parked right next to the farm gates of the track you use to get to the hills - very convenient. It didn't take very long to get up the track towards Beinn a' Chochuill's SE ridge but there were splendid views of 'The Dalmally Horseshoe' (eastern ridges of Ben Cruachan) on the way.
Dalmally Horseshoe.jpg
Dalmally Horseshoe fm route to Chochuill.jpg
actually only half of the horseshoe and a subsidiary top of the Cruachan range
A landrover passed us but didn't stop to pick us up - he went all the way round the dog-leg to the very end of the track where he stopped briefly, turned round and came back. We swear he dropped someone off to go up the ridge as Richard thinks there were 2 of them going out and only the driver coming back. We were quite jealous as, let's face it, the landrover tracks at the beginning are never the best bit of the walk.

The SE ridge is exceedingly easy and it seemed no time at all before we were up near the summit ridge - the landrover track does get you very high up first. I'd wanted to do this walk for years but only on a nice day with good views as I really wanted to see the back of Ben Cruachan and Glen Noe. The weather this day certainly didn't disappoint - the views were spectacular and beautiful! I spent all day no doubt driving Richard mad by going 'Ahhhh', 'Wow', 'Look at that view!' etc ad infinitum. The summit ridge is a superb promenade - just the right width for me - narrow enough for great views either side but absolutely no exposure whatsoever. The perfect mountain in fact in my book! :D On your right the views are of long and lonely Glen Kinglass and the Ben Starav group
Ben Starav across Glen Kinglass.jpg
- on your left the lovely deserted Glen Noe and Cruachan.
Back of Ben Cruachan(dark).jpg
Back of Ben Cruachan.jpg
After an easy walk up along the ridge to the summit and a quick explore further along the ridge to get piccies of Glen Noe and the end of Loch Etive,
Ben Cruachan back across Glen Noe.jpg
Ben Cruachan back & Loch Etive end.jpg
we headed off down the east ridge which takes you to Beinn Eunaich.
Beinn a' Chochuill Ridge - Eunaich behind.jpg


I'd had a few looks at this ridge up to Beinn Eunaich on the way past and thought it looked a bit steep and scary - from below it didn't look any better. There was a couple descending and they looked to be taking ages - I grew more worried. When they passed us I asked them if it was 'death-defying stuff?' - they just laughed and said no, it was fine. And indeed it was :D No trouble at all (and I was having a very bad trip for 'steep' - anything even remotely steep was giving me the willies :( ). The view from Eunaich was a pretty good one of Loch Awe and Kinglass again but, in my view, nothing like as good as Chochuill.
Beinn a' Chochuill.jpg
Beinns Chochuill & Cruachan fm Eunaich.jpg
Loch Awe fm Beinn Eunaich.jpg


We had both already decided while passing the very steep flanks of Eunaich on the way up the landrover track that we weren't going to descend the track which comes down the side of the end of the S ridge as it was way too steep (and the book says it's gentle!). I'd decided we would descend the ridge we came up and I'm very glad we did... just as we descended and were looking down into Glen Kinglass, there was the most beautiful rainbow below us, colouring the whole of the bottom of the glen - absolutely beautiful! :D
Glenn Kinglass & rainbow fm Eunaich.jpg
From the foot of the ridge we just went down from the col to the landrover track - very straightforward and my toe loved the soft ground - wasn't too wet either.

I would definitely do Beinn a' Chochuill again but probably wouldn't bother with Eunaich. A great day on 2 very nice Munros indeed! Makes you think that's what it's all about;-) Sorry a lot of the pics are samey but I think they all have their own qualities and can't choose :)

Re: Beinns a' Chochuill & Eunaich With A Bad Toe

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:35 am
by Paul Webster
Good report - like the rainbows. A wise choice to not descend from Beinn Eunaich probably - the path down to the track really was extremely steep (not a scramble or anything, but not very nice :? )

Re: Beinns a' Chochuill & Eunaich With A Bad Toe

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 12:18 pm
by kinley
Great shots from a great pair of hills.

Spectacular views in the winter from these 8)

Cheers

Re: Beinns a' Chochuill & Eunaich With A Bad Toe

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 9:54 pm
by mountain coward
Well I am thinking of doing Beinn a' Chochuill again but a different route - up the same way, along the ridge, continue until it nearly drops into Glen Noe and then back over the pass - I may well do that in winter, think it would be great! :)

Re: Beinns a' Chochuill & Eunaich With A Bad Toe

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:28 pm
by Caberfeidh
Think how much easier that would have been if you had let me perform just a wee below-knee amputation. You would hardly notice it was gone. We could fit a wheel, then you could go round hills really easily!

Re: Beinns a' Chochuill & Eunaich With A Bad Toe

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:35 pm
by mountain coward
If I had wheels, I'd be even more terrified of steep descents!;-)