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Peter and I had decided to go for our first munro of the year today - Beinn Chabhair up at Loch Lomond.
Due to the short day and forecast of snow, we decided on a single munro.
I picked Peter up in Glasgow just after 7:30am and we were suited and booted at the Inverarnan Drovers Inn by 9am, the drive had been eventful with lots of lying snow at Luss on the A82.
We followed the WalkHighlands route up past the waterfall where we encountered our first difficulty. With the lying snow, losing one's footing could pose a slide down the gully and what looked like a potentially deadly drop into the ravine! Out came the ice axe and got us past this "potentially tricky/deadly" wee bit.
Our first sighting of the Beinn Ghlas falls:
Looking back down to the entrance to Beinn Ghlas farm and Inverarnan Drovers Inn on the left:
A wooded bit where the "tricky bit" with the potential drop resides:
Trees looking wintery with Inverarnan Drovers Inn well below:
Then it's out onto the open Moorland, we could see the ridge but that was about it. We saw another walker coming down the path that heads up to the left ( I assume this is the left higher route fork that the WH trip report talks about).
Bleak looking route ahead:
It turned out to be Paul, over from Northern Ireland for 10 days, he'd overnighted in his car and was setting out with a massive backpack to bag all of the Crianlarich Hills in Winter conditions. We hooked up and decided on the lower route, so followed the burn on the "straight ahead" fork.
We got to around the top of Parlan Hill at 666m around midday and decided to turn back due to the poor visual navigation, lack of time, and bloody freezing feet! (on my part at least). This was the correct decision, the hills will always be there, and we were gonna get no views anyway. We got back down at 3:15pm, so 5.15 hours for 2/3rd distance == correct decision!
We had a bite to eat with Paul and said our goodbyes as he was high camping up there - good luck mate and let us know how you got on when you read this report.
Peter posing at a big split rock:
Loads more snow had fallen and our tracks were disappearing, but we got back OK, just the tricky bit to navigate again. Glad when that was past - a slip there really could have been fatal.
Conditions were "mince", so glad we wrapped it, almost back in the forest bit near the "tricky" section:
Further down we spotted two black mountain goats with a fair set of horns on them, Peter took photos and will post them soon.
Glad to get back to the car and get changed out of our soaking gear.
Only around the end of the journey home did my feet thaw out!
Glad we made the correct decision and hope that Paul is fine up there.
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