A Good Walk Spoilt
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 8:43 pm
We were determined to keep our walking going after a much improved beginning to the year (for us!) having already climbed seven munros. With this in mind we also thought that it was time to get our bigger tent out for an airing and I thought that An Caisteal and Beinn a’ Chroin would be a good walk being only five minutes from The Pine Trees caravan and camping site at Tyndrum. I would recommend this place as it was very friendly and spotlessly clean.
The weather forecast was good for the Saturday and so we drove the 5 minutes down to Crianlarich before turning right to the lay-by which was the start of the walk. There were many cars parked up and I thought it would be a busy afternoon. The start was across the boggy field (and it is certainly muddy!) before getting to the underpass and out onto the farm track and started walking along the landrover track.
There is a choice of going straight up to Sron Gharbh or to follow the landrover track until you come to the end and then climb up to join the path leading to An Caisteal. We chose the latter route which made it a steep and boggy pull up to the start of the path to An Caisteal.
We stopped for a rest and had a bite to eat, meeting people coming up and down the path.
One guy we met had already done four munros that day and was disappointed that he hadn’t got the five he sat out to do! We started out on the path, aptly named Twistin Hill and towards An Caisteal and managed to get over the first ‘step’ without too much bother. We then get through a tricky wee scramble with Su and myself getting Ruby through that bit and then headed up the path to the cairn at An Caisteal and our first Munro of the day.
We took a number of photos as the light was good with views towards Ben More and Stob Binnein and towards Arrochar to the West. After having a rest we decided to go down to the Bealach Buide below. I could see the path heading up the side of Beinn a’ Chroin and the second Munro of the day. At that point Su had told me that she couldn’t go any further which was a blow and I decided that I would go on my own to Beinn a’ Chroin, leaving Su and Ruby to go down from the Bealach on their own and I would meet them at the end of the shoulder that takes you down from Beinn a’ Chroin. As I managed to get past the scramble I was soon on the top and took a number of photos to make sure that I got the correct cairn, and then made my way along the top and down the shoulder to rejoin Su who had by that time had to carry Ruby down the steep slope down to the grassy ridge.
I am unsure why I made the decision of leaving Su and Ruby on the day which broke the cardinal rule of not leaving someone on their own as I would normally have done the right thing and made sure that Su and Ruby would be looked after until we were off the hill. Is it that I have become a ‘must do’ Munro Bagger with the strength to be able to do more than one Munro in the day, especially with one so close to adding to my total. More likely is that I became very selfish and didn’t look at any repercussion that would happen as I looked to add another to my total. Either way I apologize to Su and Ruby and am ashamed of my behaviour. One thing for sure is that it won’t happen again, as I value them more than I could any hill.
The weather forecast was good for the Saturday and so we drove the 5 minutes down to Crianlarich before turning right to the lay-by which was the start of the walk. There were many cars parked up and I thought it would be a busy afternoon. The start was across the boggy field (and it is certainly muddy!) before getting to the underpass and out onto the farm track and started walking along the landrover track.
There is a choice of going straight up to Sron Gharbh or to follow the landrover track until you come to the end and then climb up to join the path leading to An Caisteal. We chose the latter route which made it a steep and boggy pull up to the start of the path to An Caisteal.
We stopped for a rest and had a bite to eat, meeting people coming up and down the path.
One guy we met had already done four munros that day and was disappointed that he hadn’t got the five he sat out to do! We started out on the path, aptly named Twistin Hill and towards An Caisteal and managed to get over the first ‘step’ without too much bother. We then get through a tricky wee scramble with Su and myself getting Ruby through that bit and then headed up the path to the cairn at An Caisteal and our first Munro of the day.
We took a number of photos as the light was good with views towards Ben More and Stob Binnein and towards Arrochar to the West. After having a rest we decided to go down to the Bealach Buide below. I could see the path heading up the side of Beinn a’ Chroin and the second Munro of the day. At that point Su had told me that she couldn’t go any further which was a blow and I decided that I would go on my own to Beinn a’ Chroin, leaving Su and Ruby to go down from the Bealach on their own and I would meet them at the end of the shoulder that takes you down from Beinn a’ Chroin. As I managed to get past the scramble I was soon on the top and took a number of photos to make sure that I got the correct cairn, and then made my way along the top and down the shoulder to rejoin Su who had by that time had to carry Ruby down the steep slope down to the grassy ridge.
I am unsure why I made the decision of leaving Su and Ruby on the day which broke the cardinal rule of not leaving someone on their own as I would normally have done the right thing and made sure that Su and Ruby would be looked after until we were off the hill. Is it that I have become a ‘must do’ Munro Bagger with the strength to be able to do more than one Munro in the day, especially with one so close to adding to my total. More likely is that I became very selfish and didn’t look at any repercussion that would happen as I looked to add another to my total. Either way I apologize to Su and Ruby and am ashamed of my behaviour. One thing for sure is that it won’t happen again, as I value them more than I could any hill.