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Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Tue May 25, 2010 12:14 pm
by jonny616
Once again we set out from Glasgow under a clear blue sky. Down in numbers to just two for this trip due to others work commitments & a feeble excuse about a wedding. This will be my seventh walk of the year in good to great weather conditions so i'm wondering what the penance will be or is the payback for all the wet trips last year?

Parked the car in the car park kindly provided by the people who's farm it is, breakfast roll consumed while booting up & then headed of beside the wall to the left of the car park. There is a sign saying to the hill, but only follow it if you are going to climb Achaladair first.
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Beinn Dothaidh from Achaladair farm


We were headed to the bridge over the tulla staying with the track untill we could see the bridge, with good views of the hills & ridge along the way.
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Beinn Achaladair


After crossing the bridge the path becomes a bit scetchy, but we had the walk notes so when we hit the railway line followed it untill we found the underpass.

Then followed the dear fence up towards coire an lochan, hanging left before reaching the lochan having picked a spot on the ridge to aim for. this was a bit of a slog in the hot conditions. Some deer apeared on the ridge to check us out, but too far away for a decent pic.
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Lochan a Chreachain



Once on the ridge this is a glorious walk especialy with the good weather the views across Rannoch are just stunning & once you reach the summit of Beinn a Chreachain you can see all the hills on the other side.
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Ridge to Cheachain with Achaladair in the distance


Before we headed for the summit we had a wee sit down for about 20 minuits just taking in the scene. Watching the cloud come across glen coe which was very hazy looking.
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Summit of Beinn a Chreachain
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Hazy fantazy. Creise & BEM

From the summit the drop down is straight forward with an on off path. Once down you can either go straight up the edge of the ridge to get the views or take the diagonal path wich takes you gradualy to the ridge. We did a half & half.

Once on the ridge at Meall Buidhe we stoped for lunch. As Beinn a Chreachain was my 50th munro ( 2 years to the day from my first) i had brought two stella's with me and after a pie & a pint, so to speak, a little dozze was in order.
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Post lunch


40 minuits later down to the bealach before heading steaply up to the summit of Achaladair.
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Steep accent of Achaladair looking back to Creachain
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Ben More & Stob Binnien


The cairn is right on the edge & the drop is pretty impresive.
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Looking down to the farm
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Summit of Achaladair


From this point the ridge walk is still fine, but seams wrong as you are walking in completly the wrong direction form were the car is. With the great weather we ambled along taking our time. Once at the head of coire Daingean the path is obvious most of the way, but even after all the dry weather it is still boggy in parts. Here we also came across our first midges ( much chat on the forum about this)

All in all a great, if long walk.

Re: Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 3:13 am
by mountain coward
Still have that to do yet so thanx for the pics - any likely problems for mountain cowards on the ascent of Chreachain? I keep reading little snippets in the books about one tricky bit getting up to the summit from the loch?

Re: Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 8:57 am
by monty
Nice report Jonny,
Well done on reaching the 50 :D Some nice pictures too. Strange to have a summit cairn right on the edge :shock: And yeo the midges are out and they will soon be biting :lol:

Re: Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 12:05 pm
by fedupofuserids
Thanks for the pics, I've just been discussing this as a possible trip this year :D

Re: Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2010 3:46 pm
by jonny616
mountain coward wrote:Still have that to do yet so thanx for the pics - any likely problems for mountain cowards on the ascent of Chreachain? I keep reading little snippets in the books about one tricky bit getting up to the summit from the loch?



This is a perfect mountain coward walk, no tricky bits at all.

This picture shows the path to the summit of Chreachain once you are on the ridge. The loch is out of shot on the left & we came up to the ridge were the snow patch is & as you can see its grassy all the way to the ridge. If you go clockwise as we did.
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Re: Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Fri May 28, 2010 12:06 am
by mountain coward
Thanks :D that's what I thought from my study of the map! I will be doing it clockwise and it looks fine - thanks again! Wonder what the book was on about?

Re: Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Fri May 28, 2010 11:48 pm
by snodland
Oooh No - Mountain Coward. Best Go straight up Choire Achaladair first of all. Then you can choose 1) whether to go up to the bealach or straight up the really really grassy west side of Achaladair (it cuts at least a half hour/hour off the trip - it really is safe ) and then go on to Creachin.Then 2) The extended flat walk along the side of the Watewr of Tulla is after descending Creachin and when you are knacked, rather than before you have even worked up a sweat.And even after a good summer the descent/ascent path along Coire Achaladair is a Bog Fest

But the view at the top of both munros is one of the widest vistas I have ever seen on Scottish Hill, stretching from Ben Cruachan in the west up north to Nevis and the Grey Corries and Over to Drumochter Hills in the east.So go do it

Re: Breaking the half century at Bridge of Orchy

PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 8:35 am
by mountain coward
Well I'd seen there was another grassy ridge up and couldn't understand why the book was suggesting going all the way round to the end of Creachain to climb it instead of just bashing up the side - but perhaps it's to see the lochan? You can probably see it from the summit anyway though? I know the views must be good though from doing the surrounding Munros - they were good views :D