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Mor Bheinn and Beinn Dearg (eventually) from St. Fillans

Mor Bheinn and Beinn Dearg (eventually) from St. Fillans


Postby past my sell by date » Mon Dec 30, 2013 4:01 pm

Fionas included on this walk: Beinn Dearg, Mór Bheinn

Date walked: 29/12/2013

Time taken: 4.25 hours

Distance: 10.4 km

Ascent: 735m

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As no-one has written about the ascent of these two Grahams from St. Fillans I thought I would be the first.
My intention was just to climb Beinn Dearg by the NE ridge as described by Johnny Corbett
I set off on the track across St. Fillans golf course, kept R past West Dundurn, climbed a rickety stile over a deer fence and headed L along a track. In front of the next gate I took a small path R across a stream and climbed diagonally up L across the open hillside. The footpath shown going up Gleann Ghoinean is difficult to find at first , but once you get above the initial steep rise it becomes more distinct, and I made faster progress.
Soon Beinn Dearg came into view - totally plastered in deep snow! This was either very wet - no thanks - or firm and hard - in which case I really would need at least an axe - time for a rethink.
The steep slopes of Mor Bheinn on the L however seemed quite clear of snow, and as a huge section of the forest on the E side of the Alt Ghoinean has recently been harvested, it looked as though access would be quite easy.
I therefore retraced my steps down to the burn, crossed it ( with some difficulty after the persistent heavy rain) and climbed the other bank to an even more rickety stile that took me straight on to a large gravelled road. (I had noted the existence of this stile previously). As I teetered on the swaying top - fully 4 ft off the ground - I thought of Ellen Macarthur in the Southern Ocean swaying thru a 60 degree arc - 90 ft up Kingfisher's mast : :)
I walked on up the road to the cleared section, while a group of 3-5 red kites soared above. At a "layby" on the L, I set off up a small burn. there was a bit of brash at first but then I climbed easily beside a section of newly planted trees to the upper fence - alt ca. 350m - which I climbed over at a corner: (I don't really like doing this, but it felt much more secure than either of the stiles).
The steep terrain above was mainly deep heather with small snow patches that collapsed as soon as I trod on them. The going was slow and as it was just off my map I didn't know exactly where the summit was, but climbing up to a ridge there was the trig point less than 50m away. ( 2hr 30) I descended more steep heather almost due west and then crossed the boggy forest remains - no fence - until I reached the road. As it was getting late I decided against retracing my route over the stile and swollen burn, but continued down the road - the kites were still soaring and I also encountered a group of a dozen or so goats. Near the bottom of the forest road, I have previously cut down sharp L and followed rough tracks behind St. Fillans mound to reach the fields by the chapel, but this involves crossing the (same) burn and for obvious reasons I decided against it and continued down to Dundurn and back along the main road. Dundurn would be the obvious starting point for this ascent, but sadly there is a total absense of public parking there
March 11th 2014
Climbed Beinn Dearg by the intended route (2.5hr). Long boggy approach - though the one from Glen Artney looked no better - but enjoyable NE ridge. Continued W for a few hundred metres and descended the easy slopes of Coire Ghoinean just beyond the forest. Return to St. Fillans 2 hr
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past my sell by date
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