No Grief on Chleibh

[Bert Barnett]

Beinn a’ Chleibh was the hill for my first and second completions. The first was after an ascent of Ben Lui where we soloed up a good snow gully in thick mist, somewhere to the right of Central Gully. At the summit, there was a clearing of the mist and we could see the hill to the west which had remained my undone last Munro for sixteen years. On the spur of the moment, I decided to call it in. The next visit was later that year when with a few friends from Glen Lochy we started with Ben Lui then over to Ba’C where I completed another set of Munros, having had only about fifty seconds left after the first set. My third ascent was an approach via Succoth and along the pylon line and out of the trees for a misty grassy day. The bonus of a second Meall nanTigheann was part of that plan. My fourth visit was the standard river and railway crossing and black slurp up through the trees, and a promise never to take this route again. With a fifth on the cards I thought I would cycle into Succoth and repeat the power line route. There is currently much heavy machinery around and new lorry roads for the forestry and run of river works. This presented no problem however and after the bridge crossing to Succoth, the old track is regained. After Succoth, the track is reduced to a path, blighted with a few fallen trees and regular swamped sections. A bit sad as the route is well placed high above the burn and through some pleasant woodland. However, the day was brightened when there appeared to the left, shortly before reaching the pylons, a well made track heading up, with the possibility of clear ground. The track did not quite reach the big forest road above, but the ground was dry and had never seen trees. Along the forest road a few yards, another wee track headed up left, and although it ended abruptly, the steep grassy ground was pleasant and before long I could see open hillside. I took a GPS at this point as I knew cloud was coming and finding the same point on the return could prove very difficult indeed. After a deer fence crossing, the grassy mossy slopes to the top were largely dry and easy going. This route is possibly known, but even without a bike, I would wholly recommend this alternative.