A remote-ly interesting alternative route
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 10:23 pmMid-week weather watching had us weighing up various routes in different areas, but we finally settled on a 4-Corbett route from Glen Feshie to include one of the most remote summits, Beinn Bhreac. Realising that Fhidhleir and Sgarsoch were really quite close (when looking at the map - zoom out far enough and everying is close!), Scoob came up with the bright idea of adding these 2 Munros to our route 
This was more because we'd both done the very long route with a big river crossing to Geldie Lodge the first time around and Scoob really didn't want to go for the same again 
The WH description of both of these Munros calls them 'unspectacular'... but our day was far from that! After a 10km cycle, a barefoot wade across the river, then a 14km walk, we could just begin to see our first target!
Climbing up the shoulder of An Sgarsoch we could see over to Geldie Lodge, finally reaching our first summit cairn almost 6.5 hours after leaving the car park. 
Long since figuring we wouldn't be going for all 4 Corbetts on this trip, we could now see the route ahead. Still plenty of daylight so we set off for the next Munro and planned to continue for at least the 1 Corbett, since Beinn Bhreac was our original target and all the rest were just 'add ons' around it
I was most keen to come back off of Bhreac along the reasonably flat plateau to Leathad an Taobhain as that would give us a second Corbett thrown in to what would be a very long walk out regardless. Another lesson in paying closer attention to the maps though, as that plateau turned out to have many ups and downs as well as endless peat hags. There were some interesting finds though, and even the occassional piece of flatter ground 
So now we only had one top to climb over to pick up the long landrover track back to the bikes. Realising we might not get back to the bikes before sunset at 10.15pm we kept pushing on. Hadn't thought to bring head torches with us today and we didn't have lights on either of the bikes However we reached the bikes at 10.30pm, cycled over the rough ground that made me feel like I was being violently shaken (bringing out my tourettes! ) and then finished off with a fantastic cycle on the good tarmac - wheeee! 
This was more because we'd both done the very long route with a big river crossing to Geldie Lodge the first time around and Scoob really didn't want to go for the same again The WH description of both of these Munros calls them 'unspectacular'... but our day was far from that! After a 10km cycle, a barefoot wade across the river, then a 14km walk, we could just begin to see our first target!
Climbing up the shoulder of An Sgarsoch we could see over to Geldie Lodge, finally reaching our first summit cairn almost 6.5 hours after leaving the car park. - cycle in starts on wonderfully smooth tarmac
- cycle in finishes on more bumpy ground after the Lodge
- river crossing - above my knee height in the middle; glad I'd just carried my trousers over too!
- beautiful area, made the hours of walking in pass quickly
- finally made it to the big waterfall marked on the map
- Helpful - at least we didn't have to de-boot again!
- An Sgarsoch now almost in full view, although still a fair way to go!
- looking across the shoulder over towards Geldie Lodge - the alternative route in
- An Sgarsoch summit at last!! :)
Long since figuring we wouldn't be going for all 4 Corbetts on this trip, we could now see the route ahead. Still plenty of daylight so we set off for the next Munro and planned to continue for at least the 1 Corbett, since Beinn Bhreac was our original target and all the rest were just 'add ons' around it
I was most keen to come back off of Bhreac along the reasonably flat plateau to Leathad an Taobhain as that would give us a second Corbett thrown in to what would be a very long walk out regardless. Another lesson in paying closer attention to the maps though, as that plateau turned out to have many ups and downs as well as endless peat hags. There were some interesting finds though, and even the occassional piece of flatter ground - view to Fhidhleir, our next target
- taking a more direct route up Fhidhleir
- Carn an Fhidhleir summit looking to the Corbetts (Bhreac in centre with LaT off to the right with snow line)
- heading towards the even more remote Beinn Bhreac
- Beinn Bhreac summit at last!
- LaT in the distance - that plateau's not looking quite so flat now!
- a small 'get your breath back'/relief section :)
- surprised we hadn't seen any deer before now, although there was plenty of space for us all out here!
- cool snow tunnel :)
- endless peat hags!
- Leathad an Taobhain summit, woohoo!! Still smiling so can't be that bad :)
So now we only had one top to climb over to pick up the long landrover track back to the bikes. Realising we might not get back to the bikes before sunset at 10.15pm we kept pushing on. Hadn't thought to bring head torches with us today and we didn't have lights on either of the bikes
However we reached the bikes at 10.30pm, cycled over the rough ground that made me feel like I was being violently shaken (bringing out my tourettes! ) and then finished off with a fantastic cycle on the good tarmac - wheeee! - track as far as the eye can see - long way til we're back at the bikes
- Yay! Just a 10km cycle left to go...
