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Got to car park just after 12 on Sunday, was pretty full & in need of resurface. Must have been quite a few on the hills, didn't meet anyone after car park though. Thought I could do this quickly based on other reports - when I got back I realised some reports were only for first summit though d'oh.
Back on road and turn right to get to the track, there's a stile here then a gate immediately on the left. The going here is boggy and steep so I had a few camera breaks on the way up.
The worst of the bog is just after the gate, looks OK but can be knee deep. Bypass to the right then back onto the path. The path leads on up the side of a fence, then branches to the right to meet the stile. The grassy gully in crags above can be spotted from here.
At the top of the gully there's a plateau and you can see the next set of crags/ridge.
I noticed a large group making their way up the low point on the ridge towards the right of pic above. On the return I came down the dip just to the left of that, but on the way up I followed the WH route up the crags on the left, had to zig zag upwards to avoid tricky bits.
Again, it's a steep slog upwards.
Wasn't as boggy though and grass became frosted over.
Made it to Stob Coire Creagach cairn, loads of footsteps in frost but I didn't see anyone so I reckon most returned from here.
Visibility was poor with occasional clear spell that would vanish as soon as I got the camera out. Continued along ridge, pretty straightforward but path not obvious in places.
Creag Bhosgain:
Binnein an Fhidhleir:
View down North side of ridge, plenty of peat hags frozen over so lots of slippy ice.
Snow sections on Binnein an Fhidhleir so I put on crampons for practise. The snow had a frosty layer on top so was quite grippy if the gradient wasn't too severe.
Finally saw the summit:
And a frosty trig point with Loch Fyne in background. Mmm...kippers:
Stopped here for lunch, time was getting on though & not much daylight left so I returned down snow then tried a traverse on North side to avoid peaks. It was fairly icy here though & back up on ridge probably easier.
From Stob Coire Creagach cairn I decided to try a different descent route (shown on earlier pic). This was easier going down, but when I got to the flat section it wasn't obvious where the grassy gully started - no clear path to follow - and light was fading. Went down the side of a burn which was OKish and came out a bit further East than before so had to walk a bit to the stile. Ben Ime was looking majestic so tried a photo, camera was giving warnings though due to poor light.
Easy to follow route from the stile, bit boggy but didn't need torch. Only 2 cars left in car park - hope someone wasn't stuck in the dark!
