Five Baldies plus one!
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 3:21 pmFor once I wasn't to be on my own heading out onto the hills as I'd finally managed to arrange a weekend where both myself and my neighbours Wullie and Alex were off at the same time. I left the details to Wullie (Quoman on here,) and we left a still dark Stenhousemuir at 6am, heading up to Loch Laggan.
Alex's famous Rotwieler Bear was also in toe.
We arrived about half 8 and pulling into the layby just in front of us were Gammy, Johnny and George from the this site as well... so time for an impromptu WH meet up!
Six of the best and only me with a hair on his head!
We set off over the bridge and off up the good wee road passing a massive dumper truck on the way, half hoping to pinch it and make short work of the long walk in!
Not too long after the track meets another and sharp right hand turn is taken and this follows round to the left passing a wee reservoir and then arrives at Lochan na h-Erba with it's stunning wee sandy beach and tremendous views down the glen.
Here the right hand fork in the path is taken and soon the ascent begins. The path follows up the side of the Allt Coire Pitidh and the side of Beinn 'aChlachair is visible over to the right, although it's head was lost in the thin cloud. The mountain is a massive horseshoe shape and the side visible is the shorter side. Over the top left Gael Charn is visible as is the final munro of the day Creag Pitidh.
At this point I found my pace was somewhere in the middle of the pack. Baldies to the left of me, jokers to the right! Here I am stuck in the middles with me!
Soon we had to cross the wee burn and onto the boggy ground on the other side. We originally went a little too high up the the good stalker's path. But after consulting 5 GPSes and good chin wag, we found the the right place to cross. So over we went, let boggynes commence!
At the first the going isn't too steep, but quite slimey and squelchy. However, as the gradient increases, becoming very steep, the boggy-ness eases, though doesn't entirely disappear. We aimed for the dip in the bumps that make up the eatern arm of Beinn a'Chlachair and finally the bog disappeared. Time for a cup tea!
From here the climb becomes more rocky and after another short steep patch the gradient eases as the walk rounds the top of the Coire a'Chlachair Mor.
There is a faint path from the bump to the top of the corries, but as the path enters a boulder field it's lost. However, the summit was very obvious in front of us and we made a bee-line for it.
In just about 3 hours the top of Beinn a'Chlachair was reached.
Bear and Alex at the top, just as Johnny arrives.
We were quite lucky in our timing at the top of Beinn a'Chlachair, we had it clear, but as we looked back from later on in our walk, it seemed to spend much of it's day covered in cloud.
From the first top we all set off down to the hill a bit found a nice sun trap to enjoy our lunch in. Gammy passed out the goodies, Sports Mixture, Chocolate Raisins and nuts... went down a treat!
As the cloud covered the sun, it was time to move on again and we made our way down the steep sides of Beinn a'Chlachair in the fairly low bealach between it and Gael Charn, our next target. Here the good stalkers path of followed down hill a bit, until a junction with a smaller path. We turned right here and made back up hill. The path heads over to the col between Gael Charn and Creag Pitidh, so we found a suitable spot and left it behind. We headed directly uphill once again on decent ground, I must admit to finding the going a little tough here, but my fellow walkers kept me geed up and in no time we were at the false summit then real summit of Gael Charn. All the time we had been climbing the wind had been getting higher and higher and a few spits of rain peppered us at the summit. So it was on with the waterproofs just in case.
Lunch number two was had in the shelter of the impressive cairn at the top Gael Charn, but the wind was buffeting us, so we quickly moved onto the final munro of the day. Creag Pitidh. On the way across I was really feeling the pace and was lagging behind. Thankfully Quoman came up with the solution.. a Snickers bar! He quite rightly diagnosed a sugar level crash and told me off for eating too much s**t on the trip. I had eaten too much pieces and yoghurt and it was obviously too heavy in my stomach. But about 3 years after everyone else I managed to the top of Creag Pitidh. A few pats on the back and a sugar rush later, I was right as rain.
The hill may be shorter than it's too neighbours, but it is steep, thankfully unlike it's two neighbours it has a nice path up through the crags to the top and even better the rain had stayed away. Waterproofs off!
Here if anything the wind was even stronger, so after the usual Superman gimmicks it was time to head back down. At the beginning there is a path down, but this is lost in the boggy section, but in good weather it's obvious where to head. Keep the right of the really nasty peaty boggy stuff and aim for a twist in the Allt Coire Pitidh, just below where we crossed it on the way up. The ground then changes from bog to grassy with big holes in it, hidden by the long grass. This made for some slower going, but nothing too bad. From here it was a quick march back down the stalkers path back the way we had came to begin with.
All in all a fab day out. It was great to meet some fellow WHers and have some good company out on the hills... Cheers chaps!
Alex's famous Rotwieler Bear was also in toe.
We arrived about half 8 and pulling into the layby just in front of us were Gammy, Johnny and George from the this site as well... so time for an impromptu WH meet up!
Six of the best and only me with a hair on his head!
We set off over the bridge and off up the good wee road passing a massive dumper truck on the way, half hoping to pinch it and make short work of the long walk in!
Not too long after the track meets another and sharp right hand turn is taken and this follows round to the left passing a wee reservoir and then arrives at Lochan na h-Erba with it's stunning wee sandy beach and tremendous views down the glen.
Here the right hand fork in the path is taken and soon the ascent begins. The path follows up the side of the Allt Coire Pitidh and the side of Beinn 'aChlachair is visible over to the right, although it's head was lost in the thin cloud. The mountain is a massive horseshoe shape and the side visible is the shorter side. Over the top left Gael Charn is visible as is the final munro of the day Creag Pitidh.
At this point I found my pace was somewhere in the middle of the pack. Baldies to the left of me, jokers to the right! Here I am stuck in the middles with me!
Soon we had to cross the wee burn and onto the boggy ground on the other side. We originally went a little too high up the the good stalker's path. But after consulting 5 GPSes and good chin wag, we found the the right place to cross. So over we went, let boggynes commence!
At the first the going isn't too steep, but quite slimey and squelchy. However, as the gradient increases, becoming very steep, the boggy-ness eases, though doesn't entirely disappear. We aimed for the dip in the bumps that make up the eatern arm of Beinn a'Chlachair and finally the bog disappeared. Time for a cup tea!
From here the climb becomes more rocky and after another short steep patch the gradient eases as the walk rounds the top of the Coire a'Chlachair Mor.
There is a faint path from the bump to the top of the corries, but as the path enters a boulder field it's lost. However, the summit was very obvious in front of us and we made a bee-line for it.
In just about 3 hours the top of Beinn a'Chlachair was reached.
Bear and Alex at the top, just as Johnny arrives.
We were quite lucky in our timing at the top of Beinn a'Chlachair, we had it clear, but as we looked back from later on in our walk, it seemed to spend much of it's day covered in cloud.
From the first top we all set off down to the hill a bit found a nice sun trap to enjoy our lunch in. Gammy passed out the goodies, Sports Mixture, Chocolate Raisins and nuts... went down a treat!
As the cloud covered the sun, it was time to move on again and we made our way down the steep sides of Beinn a'Chlachair in the fairly low bealach between it and Gael Charn, our next target. Here the good stalkers path of followed down hill a bit, until a junction with a smaller path. We turned right here and made back up hill. The path heads over to the col between Gael Charn and Creag Pitidh, so we found a suitable spot and left it behind. We headed directly uphill once again on decent ground, I must admit to finding the going a little tough here, but my fellow walkers kept me geed up and in no time we were at the false summit then real summit of Gael Charn. All the time we had been climbing the wind had been getting higher and higher and a few spits of rain peppered us at the summit. So it was on with the waterproofs just in case.
Lunch number two was had in the shelter of the impressive cairn at the top Gael Charn, but the wind was buffeting us, so we quickly moved onto the final munro of the day. Creag Pitidh. On the way across I was really feeling the pace and was lagging behind. Thankfully Quoman came up with the solution.. a Snickers bar! He quite rightly diagnosed a sugar level crash and told me off for eating too much s**t on the trip. I had eaten too much pieces and yoghurt and it was obviously too heavy in my stomach. But about 3 years after everyone else I managed to the top of Creag Pitidh. A few pats on the back and a sugar rush later, I was right as rain.
The hill may be shorter than it's too neighbours, but it is steep, thankfully unlike it's two neighbours it has a nice path up through the crags to the top and even better the rain had stayed away. Waterproofs off!
Here if anything the wind was even stronger, so after the usual Superman gimmicks it was time to head back down. At the beginning there is a path down, but this is lost in the boggy section, but in good weather it's obvious where to head. Keep the right of the really nasty peaty boggy stuff and aim for a twist in the Allt Coire Pitidh, just below where we crossed it on the way up. The ground then changes from bog to grassy with big holes in it, hidden by the long grass. This made for some slower going, but nothing too bad. From here it was a quick march back down the stalkers path back the way we had came to begin with.
All in all a fab day out. It was great to meet some fellow WHers and have some good company out on the hills... Cheers chaps!
looking forward to next day out 
