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we have always planned to do some hillwalking in glencoe, but we kept postponing it for couple of years actually. always some closer or more attractive (is it possible at all???) mountain or place came up. and every time we drove thru glencoe we always stopped just to admire the high and rocky mountains around. for me, glencoe is one of those places that seems to have some magic, that moves my hearts.
finaly we made our plans come true, in july during the 2.5 weeks we climbed 6 munros in glencoe, two each trip. you have already seen pictures from bidean nam bian, now beinn a'bheitir and next is going to be buachaille etive beag.
but lets concentrate on beinn a'bheithir now. it was a
great 9 hrs walk.
amongst all the options of climbing it we chose the most difficult one - it was detailed in the 'munros' book. the difference between this one and the one from walkhighlands is that we climb up the 'second' ridge (scrambling involved) and not the first one just behind the school, therefore
we tackled sgorr bhan and not beinn bhan.
the day was great, not a single cloud for the whole day, no wind whatsoever. our route included some scrambling therefore we had a little bit of everything -rocks, grassy slopes & bog
so lets start. we left the car at the visitor centre car park and followed direction specified on this website untill we reached the school. WH's walk starts here. we decided to follow the other route therefore we continued ahead for about 1 km untill we reached the gate with stile and a signpost to glen creran. we passed the gate and from the description in 'munros' book we knew we were supposed to tackle the ridge a little bit 'from behind'. i was sure that we will actually see some cairn or some other mark to let us know where to leave the path and start climbing up. we had some trouble to locate the exact place where we were supposed to leave the path and start climbing up. no cairns, although book never mentioned any i was hoping for one
we decided to come back a wee bit and try there... we found a faint path (just at the stream) which we followed, definitely it looked used by some walkers but it soon dissapeared. there was a couple who walked behind us and they started the climb up just after crossing the stiles, they walked along the fence for some time but then suddenly they appeared on another side of ridge and i'm not sure whether they followed some kind of path or they were just looking for a good place to climb up, just like us...
beata looking for some clues
i took this pic before we started climbing up, we were still on the 'main path', here you go - 'our' ridge to the left, to the right is beinn bhan, the way that WH recommends.
as i said, the path was very faint at start, then it dissapeared and we had to wade thru all sorts of hillside plants. but after about 15mins we crossed something that looked like a path again and we decided to stick with it. the path then turned into a well defined track and we were 'sorted'
looking up towards sgorr bhan
and looking down to balachullish, loch leven, mamores and The Ben.
the rocky bit just before us
the ridge walk was straight forward, with some scrambling. nothing too tricky and nothing too exposed. i marked 3 steps or shelves as you prefer that required some more attention
and some more scrambling, which actually was a great fun
here we are, rocky bit passed
we managed to the top of sgorr bhan within 3 hrs, taking our time and enjoying the sunshine
views were spectacular
and bidean nam bian looked just massive
we left sgorr bhan and walked towards the first munro of the day - sgorr dhearg
from sgorr bhan to sgorr dhearg is about 15mins walk
the summit of sgorr dhearg
and even more fantactic views!
and with our next destination - sgorr dhonuill
from the col between the two munros looking towards sgorr dhearg
and looking towards sgorr dhonuill
there is about 30 mins walk from the col to the summit of sgorr dhonuill.
the summit is just w wee scramble away!
sgorr dhonuill - the summit
looking back towards sgorr dhearg
and fantactic views again
to morvern, lismore and isle of mull
what?!?!?! i'm not going down yet!!!
from sgorr dhonuill we walked down to the coll and down to the gleann a'chaolais. the walk down was a long one. at first pretty steep, then pretty boggy. but when we reached the forest the path turned into a great stony track and was really nice. actually in that forest we had the first shade that day, all those hours up the hills we've been frying on the sun
lovely!
we came down to the other car park and from there we would have a loooong walk back to the visitor centre but, it was our lucky day, we got a lift from fellow walkers
CHEERS!!!!
to see more pictures click here:
http://around-scotland.blogspot.com/2011/08/epic-beinn-abheithir-sgorr-bhan-sgorr.htmlenjoy!!
