Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 10:09 pm
Last walking day of my week in Scotland and I was after Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal. Keeping the long one for last. Wise? Don't know now.
I started at 09:00 from the layby opposite Derrydaroch Farm, the weather was once again pretty warm. It's quite a gentle start to this one, follow the track through the farm then cut across the fields, no path, following the Allt a' Chuillin for quite a while. It then gets steep as you turn right and head up to the ridge. There are various ways to obtain the ridge, I went for the one which looked less steep, skirting Stob Creag an Fhithich arriving at Garbh Bealach at around 10:40.
I had applied plenty of suncream up to this point as the sun was quite strong, and because I was sweating in getting to the ridge the cream was now stinging my eyes quite bad. Once you get this far there is quite a good path with a few ups and down, mostly ups.
Was a nice walk along the ridge to finally get to the summit of Beinn Chabhair at 11:40. It was quite hazy now, the pictures made it look like I didn't get great views but I did. Took a picture at the summit looking back from where I'd come, as you can see the path is quite good.
I also took a picture looking towards where I was heading, the bealach between the other two peaks. It looked such a long way away, and the down and up again looked a bit daunting.
I descended southwards from this summit as the route directly towards the bealach was way too steep and craggy. The route I took was much more do-able. On the way I almost stood on this litte fella.
Didn't take long to reach the level ground where I had to start upwards again. I could see where I was trying to get to which is always a bonus
This was quite hard work but taken in short bursts I reached the bealach at 13:00 and a well earned drink. Views to the other Crianlarich hills to the east were great from here. There is a path all the way to the top of Beinn a' Chroin although it does seem to cling onto the side of the hill at points. One part I had to scramble up and I wasn't looking forward to coming back down it. When I got to the first summit cairn at 13:25 I checked my GPS and it showed a height of 939m. Good views of An Caisteal from here.
I had already decided to do all the summits of this hill just incase someone had made an error somewhere. The middle
cairn, only 5 minutes after the first, measured 947m. The far away cairn, 15 minutes later after a bit of up and down, measured 947m aswell. Measured the middle one again on the way back, 944m. Had there been a landslide while I was not there? The first cairn measured 944m. I decided my GPS was very accurate in elevation measurements. For this reason I would recommend any bagger doing this hill to do all three cairns. I took a picture of the scramble after I'd come down it. Wasn't as bad as I had thought, but it was bone dry.
Was back at the bealach by 14:50 ready to follow the path up An Caisteal. Half an hour later I was there. I had met a couple on the way up who said there was some guys on top cooking burgers. I got there too late, they had packed away all the goodies.
Another picture towards Ben More and Stob Binnein
I took a moment to relax in the sun on this summit to reflect on the week I'd had. I had obviously been blessed with great weather for most of them and was chuffed to bits at having completed all that I'd planned. I had seriously thought I would have to take a day off at some point to recover, or I'd get blisters or something horrible, but no, I'd done it - 14 Munros in a week - taking my percentage completed to 7.07%. Feeble but rising.
The route back down was via Twistin Hill. I was not far behind a group of three walkers who carried on down the ridge while I went left just before Sron Gharbh. The map had shown the end of Twistin Hill to be a bit craggy. I just had to contend with a steep grassy slope before it eased by the Allt Andoran. I had run out of liquid at this point so I filled my squash bottle up from the river. I was tempted to have a drink but a chat with a couple of other guys at Crianlarich YH the previous night had put me off drinking from the rivers unless I had no option. I just soaked my head instead which was such bliss from the sun.
The walk back from here was quite easy. When I got back to the farm I could see I wasn't the only one with hot feet. Bet she hasn't even walked as far as me today.
I met the three walkers just as we got to the farm and they confirmed the end of Twistin Hill was quite craggy and steep.
Was just a matter of getting back to the YH to relax, look forward to "Mince & Tatties" in the Rod And Reel, and enjoy a couple of beers while watching Jose's team take the trophy.
Was a bit sad it was all over for now, I won't be back until September now. Here's hoping the weather is as good.