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I swore I'd never repeat these hills ...but here we are going round the 5 Tyndrum Corbetts once again....
Allison was "otherwise engaged" til Saturday afternoon. I had planned to do a round of Ben Lawers and the Tarmachan Ridge on Friday night/ Saturday morning, but for once the weather kept me at home - probably just as well looking at some of the pictures of the flooding around Perthshire. So it was a lazy start at midday on Saturday when I picked her up. We'd set the remaining time this weekend for the Tyndrum 5, something that Sick Kid wasn't lookign forward to one bit, but an excellent opportunity to catch up with 5 Corbetts for minimal outlay. I'd gone round them last summer, adding on a Top of Creag Mhor for good measure. A few people commented on that report "you'll be doing them again with Allison" and I swore I wouldn't - she could do them herself. Yeah right
I hadn't figured out whether to do a walk in and camp somewhere round the circuit or use a campsite and do them in one day. The amount of rain overnight made me think that a campsite might be a safer bet for dry land. That meant that we had a few hours to do something first. There were a few Corbetts around Arrochar left to do, plus Beinn nan Imirean. I opted for that one - a short (10km ish) walk with little ascent, that wouldn't hurt much would it? Driving past Crianlarich I was amazed by the water level in Loch Iubhair - almost up to the road. Fortunately the bridge at Auchessan hadn't been swept away although the River Dochart was flowing past in a powerful surge. Up past the farm then onto the new hilltrack, ugly bulldoed thing. We left the track and aimed for Creag nan Uan then Meall Garbh. Behind us Ben More glowered green. The going was good, not too wet underfoot considering the drenching the land has had in the last 24 hours. It was quite a pleasant afternoon - windy but not cold. Soon we were at the cairn on Imirean, looking over to the bulk of Beinn Challum. The return was a trot back the way we'd come - I was feeling fit and fresh and even considered squeezing another hill in before evening. I thought I'd better not push my luck
Swollen River Dochart
P1080923 by
Al, on Flickr
Ugly Hilltrack
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Al, on Flickr
Ben More
P1080927 by
Al, on Flickr
Imirean
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Al, on Flickr
View to Challum
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
We opted to check out the wigwam village at Auchtertyre - although all the wigwams & hobbit houses were full the camping field was sparsely inhabited. Good facilities at the site and a reasonable price. We pitched and set about cooking a curry - I'd neglected to put any beers in and the shop didn't sell any alcohol as far as I could see. As the wind fell the midges increased their nuisance level so we retired behind mesh at 8ish. Unfortunately at about 10pm the music started - I didn't know we'd booked into an all night music festival
It went on til midnight then stopped. For a bit, then started up again. Whoever was playing the tracks did that really irritating thing you do when drunk of playing 20-30 seconds of a track then switching to something else. Don't know what was worse - the noise level or switching off songs that were good after a wee bit. Allison was ready for murder. Particularly of the guy with inane bray for a laugh. It's a poor show when loud music gets played at a campsite til 2 or 3 in the morning - I won't be paying a return visit to the Wigwam Village.
P1080935 by
Al, on Flickr
It rained heavily overnight and when we finally struggled out of bed, unrested, it was a minging morning with midges and rain, cloud right down. We drove along to Tyndrum and parked at the Info Centre, then set off to walk up to the WHW and begin our first ascent, Meall Odhar. When I'd done these last time I'd gone up the side of Meall Odhar from a layby on the A82 - very steep. This route was much kinder. Not much to getting to the 901m cairn. We set off down the ENE shoulder down into Glen Coralan. As we descended the weather improved, with the mist slowly clearing. We aimed for near the 365m spot height, crossed the river getting wet feet in the process (forgot my gaiters) and started up the eastern shoulder of Beinn a'Chaisteal. Steady grassy slopes til the fence line is met with then a flatter walk along the top of Creagan Liatha. We got to the summit cairn shortly before midday and set off down the line of fence posts towards Mam Lorn. It was wet underfoot here - we stopped to eat at the lowest point and cast eyes up to the steep sides of Beinn anm Fuaran, checking out a way up. I remembered coming down in mist and meeting a few bands of crags - the best way up looked to be to follow the fence post line.
Minging Morning in Tyndrum
P1080936 by
Al, on Flickr
Meall Odhar ascent
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Al, on Flickr
Odhar
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Al, on Flickr
Chaisteil with Dorain behind
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Al, on Flickr
Ascent line
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Al, on Flickr
Looks like green velvet
P1080943 by
Al, on Flickr
View back to descent route down Meall Odhar
P1080944 by
Al, on Flickr
creagan Liatha
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Al, on Flickr
Approaching summit Chaisteil
P1080948 by
Al, on Flickr
P1080949 by
Al, on Flickr
Down to the bealach with Fuaran
P1080950 by
Al, on Flickr
So that's what we did - a wee burst of steepness and the summit was reached. Various sheep were startled and nipped off down hill. We paused to put of waterproofs as the rain seemed to be coming and took a straight line towards the end of the ridge up to Cam Creag. This was easy going over soft spongy grass, even crossing the Abhain Ghlas was uncomplicated. We started up the gentle grassy finger that leads to both Cam Creag and Beinn Chaorach. The clouds lifted again and the sun came out, bringing various insect critters to annoy us. We followed the back of the ridge to the summit cairn of Cam Creag then turned at 90 degrees along the old electric fence line for our final summit of the day. Met one miserable looking dude coming towards us who couldn't muster a hello. Was sure I'd seen him at the campsite - wonder if he had an inane braying laugh
Ascent Fuaran
P1080951 by
Al, on Flickr
View to Cam Creag (L) and Chaorach (R)
P1080952 by
Al, on Flickr
And again
P1080953 by
Al, on Flickr
Fuaran
P1080955 by
Al, on Flickr
View back to Fuaran
P1080958 by
Al, on Flickr
Beinn an Dothaidh (zoomed)
P1080959 by
Al, on Flickr
Big rock
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Al, on Flickr
Cam Creag
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Al, on Flickr
Challum
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Chaorach
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
I was glad we'd gone round in this direction as it meant we had the smallest amount of descent/re-ascent for our final hill - we looked back down at the big "V" between Odhar and Chaisteil and were glad we didn't have the 600-odd metres of re-ascent to do to finish off that way. Summit was reached and we set off South down the broad sloping back of Chaorach aiming for the Wigwam farm and the track. it occurred to me that we could have started the walk from here, going up the long back towards Meall Odharvia Creag Bhan Eigheach. Didn't think of that. Anyway it was a pleasant walk in the sunshine back along the WHW, particularly the section from Dalrigh to Tyndrum. Back at the car in 9 hours, not bad for Sick Kid. I reflected that this was a very pleasant way to do the Tyndrum 5, certainly better than the route I'd chosen first time round. We'd also had a much better day (after the first couple of hours) than I'd expected. So it wasn't all bad doing them again
Descent route
P1080970 by
Al, on Flickr
Notched ridges of the Crianlarich hills
P1080972 by
Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
P1080974 by
Al, on Flickr