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Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 10:09 pm
by skuk007

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Another picture towards Ben More and Stob Binnein
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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.
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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.

Re: Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal

PostPosted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 8:10 am
by mountain coward
Great report and pics - love the moo at the end :D I'm needing all the info I can get on the Beinn a' Chroin craggy bit so your pics are great for me :D To be honest, I'm not too worried about going up it but I am a bit about descending it as it looks horrendously steep and so must look exposed on the way back down - did it? I want to go back to An Caisteal again after doing Beinn a' Chroin as I then want to descend the other, unpopular, ridge to get back...

All you folks doing Chabhair at the same time as doing An Caisteal and Beinn a' Chroin are making me feel very lazy! :oops:

Re: Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal

PostPosted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:46 am
by skuk007
The craggy bit wasn't that bad.

Going up, the path to it was steep and it was just a matter of hauling yourself up onto your knee first then standing up and continuing on the path. Coming down was a case of sitting down and lowering yourself back to the path. Plenty of footholds and handholds to the side. It wasn't really exposed, more a case of if you had a slip you'd end up on the steep path first and have to find a way of stopping yourself. I'll stop there as I'm making it sound a bit scary now. :lol:

This was done in the dry though so more care required when slippy. From memory you say you are quite tall so I can't see this being a problem for you. I'm only 5' 7" so had a wee bit of stretching on the way up.

Re: Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal

PostPosted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 10:00 am
by mountain coward
Great thanks - sounds okay really... yeah, I am quite tall and have a very long reach - comes in extremely handy when lowering down stuff :D

Re: Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal

PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:16 pm
by Paula Hubens
When planning my holiday your report convinced me that my plan for combining these three in one day would not be insane. I really enjoyed this walk, so thanks!

Re: Beinn Chabhair, Beinn a' Chroin and An Caisteal

PostPosted: Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:33 pm
by Malky100
LOOKS GREAT NICE REPORT HOPING TO DO ALL THREE TOMORROW TUESDSAY . WAS GOING :D TODAY BUT THESE STORMS ARE RIDICOULOUS .