Beinn a'Chaorainn & Beinn Teallach

[shivy88]

I spent my week counting down the hours till I’d be setting off on another walking weekend. When it hit 5pm on Friday I was out the office like a shot and heading off to Balgowan for some winter walking . On the drive up I was enjoying beautiful skies and the sun setting over snowy hills until I hit Drumochter, from then on all I could see was thick fog and whole place went dark . Between that and the forecast for the weekend (only 20% chance of cloud free Munros) I wasn’t holding out hope of getting any great views this weekend but was still looking forward to being out in the hills.

We set off on Saturday morning around 8.30am, parking the car at the Laggan dam and walking back up the road to the forestry track. Looking out to the Munros around Loch Treig the cloud was sitting low, there were some breaks and a bit of sun shining through and but I wasn’t feeling particularly optimistic . We followed the footsteps in the snow up the forestry track. It was already hard going through knee deep snow and I had to push from my mind the thought that we had barely even started! Luckily the advantage of the snow was that we didn’t have to deal with the bogs mentioned in the WH route description.

A misty Laggan dam

View at the start surrounded by low cloud

We continued up into the cloud finally reaching the southern top of Beinn a’Chaorainn. Visibility was pretty poor and we were all well aware of the dangers of the cornice on the traverse round. With map, compass and GPS out, we made our way to the central summit.

Southern summit pic. Map, compass and GPS out!

When we got there I got the camera out to take yet another summit picture surrounded by cloud, only to see everyone else’s face light up! I turned round to see what I was missing and it was amazing – the cloud was now below the summits giving us good views of the tops. It soon cleared giving us even better views throughout the rest of the day.

Clouds rolling out giving amazing views

The traverse round the summit of Beinn a'Chaorainn

We stayed at the summit for a while, eventually dragging ourselves away from the stunning views to descend down to the bealach between Beinn a’Chaorainn and Beinn Teallach. We had a quick decent in the deep snow and then a brief stop for lunch before continuing up to our second Munro of the day.

The views from the summit were again fantastic with clear views of the Munros either side of Loch Treig. It was incredible to see – especially as I’d seen nothing only a few months before when I was actually on them. We stayed at the summit for as long as we could before the cold started to get to us and it was time to descend. I was glad for the snow making the descent on Beinn Teallach’s southern slopes a little easier on my wee knees. When we arrived back at the car I was completely exhausted but just unbelievably happy to have had such an amazing day in the hills. I was completely taken back by the views we'd had - what a gift the mountains had given us! I’ll take that 20% chance any day.

View from Beinn Teallach over Loch Treig

Zoomed view

Descending Beinn Teallach

We drove back to our accommodation as the sun was setting – a perfect end to a perfect day.

Perfect sunset to end the day

[BlackPanther]

If every winter day on the hills looked as good as your 20% chance...

BC and BT look fantastic in full winter conditions, certainly more fun than when we did it, cloudy summer day, midges and bog everywhere... I never bothered posting my report

[dooterbang]

Been a while since I've done these hills so nice to see them again

Look pretty good covered in snow, full on winter conditions. Always good to check the GPS - safety first.

Well done on reaching 50 Munros