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A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 3:26 pm
by The Rodmiester
The Big Day walk in had arrived, leaving the Loch Ossian Hostel at the back of 0600hrs, we walked along the South shore of Loch Ossian and yes this is where I found out my temporary repair of my 3L platypus had not held, with the bottom half of my Rab pants distinctly wet. Knowing this was to be a long day on the hill and that not much opportunity of topping up when on the summits and after another unsuccessful patch repair was tried with a spare compeed plaster, it was sharing water supplies until back at low level.

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View from the Loch Ossian Youth Hostel (£22.00 per night, no fridge, no showers, no microwave a bit pricey I think!)
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An early start was called for leaving just after 0700hrs with a slight frost on the ground
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View down the loch, where we were headed
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Beinn na Lap mirrored on the Loch
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After reaching the end of the loch take the track on your left at the buildings to head on over the bridge over the outflow of the Loch. After passing over take the right track which has been recently laid with rough road metal on your right and not the one which continues past the modern archtectural styled house enclosed with railings on top of a high stone wall. This newly laid track is a bit of an eyesore to say the least and takes you over another bridhge crossing where there is heavy machinery. There are signs that you are entering a construction site, but no signs to say where the long established path is adjacent to the burn as it is partly covered up in spoil and rocks. (all part of some hydro scheme being installed by the estate, but at least it's not a windfarm, although with the amount of disruption to the local habitat it's nearly as bad, in fact it's a bit of a disgrace!)
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After finally finding the small path which runs along on the North side of Uisage Labhair we walked about another 1 1/2k and after crossing the Allt Feith a' Mheallain walked up through pretty wet undefoot conditions up Creagan na Craoibhe
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Further up the South shoulder of Creagan na Craoibhe looking back towards Loch Ossian
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The Summit of Beinn Eibhinn is up and around a corner to your right at the far end of the ridge, but after you have made this initial climb that is most of the hard work done apart from the other two climbs which are not nearly as long as what has been already climbed
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Before that there is the slight diversion for this cornice which has been identified on the map route. Under normal conditions the path takes you over the edge and directly up the adjoining slope
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Looking back the way we had come and at the snow cornice where I grabbed myself some snow to eat as my platypus was totally out of water by this time
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Looking ahead towards Aonach Beag and Geal Charn
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Summit cairn comes into view with signs of a cornice about to break away
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Looking back to the lower cairn on Beinn Eibhinn
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The path to follow where in places the corniced snow and encroached
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Two other walkers who we had met previously heading towards the summit of Beinn Eibhinn
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Geal Charn summit cairn
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Summit Geal Charn
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Cornice
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From the summit we retraced our steps to the coll and headed down into Coire a' Charra Bhig taking care at first as it is quite steep on grass then rocks followed by a soft snow field which was very welcome as it still held our weight in most places and saved the old knee joints from jarring
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There was this ruin which made an ideal place to have some more refreshments before tackling the extremely long walk back to the hostel via the rather winding undulating boggy path next to the Uisge Labhair
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Looking back to the rear of Ben Alder from the path where we spoke to a few other walkers and also a group of five lassies from Gordonstone School doing a PE award, so if any of you are still reading this report, Hi again, nice to have met you!
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Still a very long way to go to the end of Loch Ossian, but what a fabulous day, to be finished off with a Pint of Corrour Gold and a few whiskys back at the YH with the other AMC members

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 4:23 pm
by basscadet
Oh I was surprised that it is still so snowy up there.. Long day from the Youth Hostel :clap:
Thanks for the heads up about all the Hydro stuff - seems to be a lot of that going on just now. We were contemplating this last weekend, but ended up somewhere else :D
I loved these hills when I did them, although from Culra for me.. Nipped up Ben Alder on the way back as it was such a nice day! :lol:

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:46 pm
by Fife Flyer
Another informative report from the one & only Rod, with some fabby photo's :clap: :clap:

That looks like a much more difficult walk than from Dalwhinnie, interesting to see the hills from the other side.
How did you manage descending down the steep snow covered bit down towards Geal Charn?

It was surprising how much snow there is in the general area, all 4 summits were snow covered with patches lower down & some scary looking cornices :wink:

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:02 pm
by The Rodmiester
Fife Flyer wrote:Another informative report from the one & only Rod, with some fabby photo's :clap: :clap:

That looks like a much more difficult walk than from Dalwhinnie, interesting to see the hills from the other side.
How did you manage descending down the steep snow covered bit down towards Geal Charn?

It was surprising how much snow there is in the general area, all 4 summits were snow covered with patches lower down & some scary looking cornices :wink:

Hi Martin, looking at the OS map earlier I was thinking of coming off Geal Charn at the coll beyond and heading Soth West but having seen the amount of snow on the summit and also noticed that although quite steep the col between Aonach Beag and Geal Charn that might be a better option, and take it pretty slowly as it's very steep but the grassy bits were quite dry and the rocky bits lower down we're not too bad as farad stability goes, and there was these large patches of snow we made good use of which was better for the legs not so much jarring. A long way back though! You did well yourself though, big days for the both of us :clap: :clap:

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:06 pm
by soapy27
Nice report and photos the Rod :clap: Looks a fine adventure you had in perfect conditions :D

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:20 pm
by The Rodmiester
soapy27 wrote:Nice report and photos the Rod :clap: Looks a fine adventure you had in perfect conditions :D

Thanks soapy27! Brilliant day with fabulous weather, if only we could get more of them! It helped to forget the rubbish weather of the last couple of months.

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:56 pm
by Silverhill
Woohoo, those cornices! 8) Amazing how much snow there is still around.
I plan to do these from Glen Spean in June. It seems it’s a long walk in for them, whichever way you go. Well done! :clap:

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:09 pm
by The Rodmiester
Silverhill wrote:Woohoo, those cornices! 8) Amazing how much snow there is still around.
I plan to do these from Glen Spean in June. It seems it’s a long walk in for them, whichever way you go. Well done! :clap:

Hi Silverhill, yep your right a long way where ever you start, make sure you pick a good day, hills still pretty wet low down with the snow melt. At least I had the thought of a long cool pint of Corrour Gold from the Station Restaurant to keep me going over the last few miles on the track on the South of Loch Ossian :lol: :lol:

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:21 pm
by Graeme D
Yet to do any of these ones Rod so your usual top notch level of reporting on them has whetted my appetite, as has the mention of a cold pint of Corrour Gold! :D

Re: A big day out from Loch Ossian

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:54 pm
by The Rodmiester
Graeme D wrote:Yet to do any of these ones Rod so your usual top notch level of reporting on them has whetted my appetite, as has the mention of a cold pint of Corrour Gold! :D

I knew could not resist the mention of a cold pint, you should try Ollie's chips as well, they are ace, I promise you will love them :D