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Not from GPS!!! Just a rough sketch of route!
3 weeks ago, mid January, Peter and I made the decision to give up and turn back when we thought we were half way up to Ben Chabhair.
Given the great weather forecast for 2nd February 2013, we decided to try again. The previous short report for the aborted attempt is here:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=28219I'd mentioned to Duncan at work and he arranged to bring his wife Joyce. We arranged to meet at the Inverarnan Hotel at 9am. As Peter and I were running a little early, we stopped off at Firkin Point to grab photos of the sunrise and the snow topped Ben Vane and Ben Vorlich.
The sunrise from Firkin Point:
Ben Vane, Ben Vorlich and Bin Dhubcraig from Firkin Point:
After this we though the Cobbler at Arrochar might be looking good so popped over there to capture it and Beinn Narnain. We were not disappointed! What really amazed me was that Loch Long was partly frozen (it's a sea loch!). You can hear in the wee video I've attached the ice cracking! The pier with it's icy stumps reminded me of the Alien movie.
Beinn Narnain in early morning sunshine from Arrochar:
The Cobbler from Arrochar:
The pier at Arrochar:
We then stopped off briefly at Inveruglas to catch Ben Vorlich and Ben Vane which were nicely illuminated.
Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond from Inveruglas:
Ben Vorlich from Inveruglas:
A'Chrois (not Ben Vane!) from Inveruglas:
The road up from Tarbet toThe Inverarnan Drovers Inn was treacherous with black ice and twice the car drifted despite having winter tyres fitted! The drive home was uneventful thankfully.
We arrived at the car park just after 9am, Duncan and Joyce were already there. We sent off shortly after.
The Bein Glas waterfall from the Inverarnan Drover's Inn:
The day was gorgeous, a lot of the snow from two weeks ago had gone and we only really hit snow on the open moorland section, just patches - check the difference from our failed attempt trip report 2 weeks ago!!!
Duncan with Ben Vorlich behind:
Beinn Bhuide:
Ben Lui, Benn Oss, Benn Dhubcraig from Ben Chabhair ascent:
Duncan wanted to get right up onto the ridge, so we did that, passing the totally frozen first Lochan called Lochan an Caisteil, after that you drop down a bit and up a few times. This was using our valuable time up!
Frozen Lochan:
Lochan with An Caistellm Beinn 'a Chroin:
Ben Lui and Lochan:
In retrospect, we should have stuck to the Walkhighlands route which keeps off the ridge and starts to climb just before Lochan Beinn Chabhair.
The view to the top:
Duncan clearly enjoying the day:
Anyway up high the snow was hard, so ice axes required. We reached the summit just as the clag moved in, so didn't hang around due to the extreme cold and the ravenous ravens - see video!
Loch Long from near the summit:
Just before the summit, Duncan, Joyce & Peter:
The final push for the summit:
The summit itself:
Loch Long from the summit:
The descent:
Sunset over Arran:
The descent - last photo of the day!:
We dropped down to the Lochan Beinn Chabhair as soon as we could as we were in a race against sunset! We followed the river back, a well known route to Peter and I and this time around found the higher (read safer) route at the gully I spoke about in the first trip report. It was the second style down before we had to get the head torches out.
Got back to the Hotel for 6pm so 9 hours on the hill!!! Totally exhausted what a hard shift. Glad to tick this one off!
Wee Video of the day:
And Peter's trip report and photos:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=28638