Walkhighlands

Having not taken anytime off this year so far and the impending WH meet at Roy Bridge I thought it was as good an excuse as any to take a week off and head West-ish; dreadful weather Monday & Tuesday meant I had to crack on with some DIY and painting (brownie points to enable me to head off on a jolly for 5 days I suppose!!). Looking at the Weather reports on the Tuesday it seemed that the weather would be most favourable in at Corrour and I always fancied doing an overnighter taking in the 3 Ossian Munros and doing a camp around the Strathossian area. I headed over the ski road at a very driech Lecht; into Aviemore to pickup some gear before heading down to Roy Bridge to sort out my pack ahead off the walk. I decided to go with my bulkier winter sleeping bag as it was quite chilly (ended up being 4 degrees at Ossian overnight before the rain so I was quite pleased I went with the bulkier/heavier bag which took up most of my 22l sack but there was still enough room for mat, my new laser comp and food/water etc. I took what I thought was a suitable amount of food for a relatively easily round over a night and half day! I parked the car at Roy Bridge and hopped onto the 6pm service into Corrour and was pleased to see a nice evening over Loch Trieg and had a good view from the station at Corrour. I quickly headed up the faint path/sludgey bog up and up to the ridge along Bienn Na Lap. I made it to the summit in around 1 hour from the station. Rather than heading back down this way I headed along the summit ridge and off to the Strathossian side of the hill; I loved this view and I'll def be back here with the bike. The descent was easy going and "relatively" bog free down to the estate track. Great feeling of "remote country" here and I quite fancy renting the lodge which sits at the head of the glen; would be great for a WH meet! I took the track which heads back round to the shooting lodge at the north end of Loch Ossian. I was intending to camp by the River Ossian but there were already a few tents there and I thought it would be better to head up towards the next few munros given I had to catch the 15.20 train back to Roy Bridge. I eventually set up camp beside Usige Labhair and got the tent up promptly and got some food down my throat. I had a great sleep where i was only awoken a few times by the rain in the middle of the night; I slept in slightly and ended up starting late at around 10ish or so leaving me 5 hours to get the munros and my train; I reckoned it would be relatively straightforward to do it in this timescale. I headed through the non descript, gorsey bogs(!) and began the climb up to Meal Nathrach Mor which took a ridiculously long time due to it being marshy, boggy and generally bloody miserable; as such the sun was also beating down and I was sweating fairly heavily!!! Once I reached this point; I cut round to the Beleach between Sgurr Choinnich and Sgor Ghaibre. From here it was a quick pull up the side to Sgor Ghaibre. By now I was looking at my watch and starting to worry about catching the train. I didn't stop for long at the summit; literallly for a few photos of a cracking view to the Alder Range & Loch Ericht before heading off for the next munro; Carn Dearg......At this point I did something really stupid; I clocked "the" next summit ahead of me; seen a faint path through a beleach and headed off believing I was heading to the munro; the map seemed to highlight a few rocky crags and I also seen this in front of me here my brain said something along the lines of "why waste iphone battery checking GPS and why waste time getting the compass out; just get a move on!"

Sadly what I did was I headed along the Sgor Gaibhre tops, dropping down and heading backup and hit the summit of the Corbett Beinn Pharlagain; which I thought was one of the munro tops until I got onto Walkhighlands today!!!!!! It was here where I clocked the mistake and it dawned on me that I had went completely the wrong way and was a long way from the station. From here I panicked a bit and hence the lack of photos from here onwards. I cursed and kicked myself silly for not packing enough food and started heading towards Rannoch station. About ten mins on route to Rannoch I had another change of mind; I've started to develop a wee bit of "bagger" recently and I got greedy. I cut back back, descended down to the Allt Eigheach and painfully ascended/grinded the boggy/steepish slope of Sron Leachd a Chaorainn and began to jog along the ridge to hit Carn Dearg From here I knew I was never catching my 15.20 train as it was sometime around 1pm or so; the only thing on my mind at this point was getting to the station so no photos or "stops". I decided that I could be in luck and the train might run late and I'd kick myself if I took a break on the hill and ended up missing the delayed train so I pushed on anyway descending down to Corrour Old Lodge and speedwalking/jogging along the boggy track towards peters rock before cutting a few k off by traversing a load of bog, mush, gorse and general pain-in-the-arse terrain beside Meall na Lice and proceeded to jog the majority of the way to the station.

I caught the train with a few minutes to spare and I was absolutely delighted that I was able to pull this off as I had no energy in the tank whatsoever; quickly forced a few cereal bars down me but I was so wrecked by this point; the food made me feel physically sick. When I thought back to it; I had been going hammer and tongs without rest since I kicked off in the morning. It was a hard shift for me but I was absolutely delighted to be avoiding a 5/6 hour wait at the station for the 9.30 train back to Roy Bridge.

I awarded myself a very large 12oz Sirloin and all the trimmings on a sizzling platter at the Stronlossit; it was delicious and disappeared in my gullet very quickly. Overall I enjoyed the round but I am annoyed at myself for making such basic mistakes in good conditions; I'm also a bit annoyed that I rushed these and I think I'll come back in future and maybe stay at one of the hostels.

EDIT: AAAAAAAAAAARGH! bloody photos will not sync. Sod it......

Great report. Unbelieveable the amount you managed to pack into such a short time! Good to see you got your photos sorted! They are really amazing given that you didn't have a lot of time to flaff about with them.

I think you definitely deserved that steak, did it even touch the sides????

fine steak which disappeared very quickly from the sizzle platter (bizarrely they put lettuce on the platter which crisped instantly )

Wow, that's some adventure Gable Gable End .

I've had a fretful Corrour day myself before, worrying about reaching the station in time to catch the train .

Great post. Have made the same mistake myself and its super frustraiting at the time but you learn from your mistakes.

Looked awesome though!!

Alex

Great report & pics GGE,man thats a big route,dont think my gammy knee could handle that.

Nevre got the chance to ask,how did you enjoy the AE.

Nice report GGE. Nice looking campsite. We have all marched on thinking we are going the right way

Thats a big walk but luckily you got sunshine Good effort.

I seem to have heard this story before, by some drunkard in Roy Bridge
Bet you were glad it was raining on the Sunday....there would'nt have been much chance of a TR from that day!



Great to meet you again

Sounds like all's well that ended well Gable. Look on the Corbett as an unexpected wee bonus and learn from your mistake. We all make them. We all need to make them. I'm always telling pupils that (both in class and when I'm out with them on D of E expedition) - mistakes are how we learn and become more experienced. Still a bugger when it happens like that though! I'm hoping to get the Corbett and two of these Munros in next month. Hopefully no dramas like yours......

Hmm.. short of time? Just add an extra hill on to make things really awkward

An interesting route. Hoping to do the Corbett myself at some point, although I'll probably end up doing the two Munros again too, for a more interesting day out. Hopefully no racing against the train though.

Getting your walking out of the way before attending a WH meet seems to be the way forward - too much crap weather and sore heads to actually do much on the weekend!

Gable Gable End wrote:Great feeling of "remote country" here and I quite fancy renting the lodge which sits at the head of the glen; would be great for a WH meet!

I did manage to get up this way yesterday with skyepilot2 as planned. We parked at Rannoch Station and got the train up to Corrour to start the walk from there. We nipped in for a quick cuppa before starting and the guys working in there told us how much the weekly rental was for the Lodge. Can't remember how much they said but it made my eyes water anyway. There was a 3 in it, I remember that much, and it wasn't £300. Not even sure it was £3,000! So yeah, anyway, WH meet up there in 2012???

Ha! Not the main lodge but some of the smaller (sleeps 10) type abodes throughout the estate

Unless anyone fancies stumping up for the main lodge???