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Two hills on our radar for some time but had been put off in favour of other adventures were Creag Mhor and Beinn Heasgarnich. However, with Sunday looking a decent day and the few extra hours of daylight now it's March, the time had come. Plans came together, sandwiches were made, maps were studied and alarms set.
A brief stop in Killin was called for as the light on the Falls was mighty impressive
before heading down the single track road (mercifully ice free) to the parking area just short of Kenknock. Parked, booted up, added a lot of layers as it was very cold and set off along the track at 8am.
We reached the crossroads quickly and turned right up the zig zags, before stopping to take off all the extra layers we had just put on. The sun was out, it was uphill and we were getting warm!
The views down the valley were stunning and we had lots of photo breaks.
Looking back
Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas were looking impressive off to the left, and stealing the show at the head of the valley was the huge bulk of Ben Challum.
Challum
Meal Glas
We reached the dam and turned left, crossing a huge green pipe; part of the hydro works. The going was much easier here in terms of ascent and we were able to enjoy the views, although there were a lot of Bambi moments due to the many many icy puddles on the track
Looking back towards the Tarmachan ridge
The sun was beating down and I was lamenting the forgotten sun cream for the second weekend in a row - you'd have thought I would have learnt after last week's red face
Challum again
As we worked our way down the valley, Sron nan eun came into view
It looked imposing and impossible from where we were...deciding that other people have done it, so we could too, we powered on.
Challum and the Sron
Closer...
Posing in front of Challum
Finally reaching the Allt Bad a Mhaim we consulted the instructions. As suggested, we continued along the track for what felt like more than 800m before spotting the gate in the deer fence and heading up towards it. This was steep grassy ground and was hard work after the long relatively flat walk in.
Finally the time had come to attack the Sron. We headed uphill deciding to take our time and work our way around the crags. It was very steep and I was glad of my poles to stop me bending over and aggravating my still slightly sore back any further. There some tricky moments, and a few places where we were crawling on all fours, but looking back we could tell we were making progress.
Looking up...
Cool water feature
Before long we had begun to reach the snow which made things more difficult. We toyed with the idea of crampons but decided there wasn't enough snow, only enough to make things awkward. We managed to pick out some routes that had the least snow and looked passable.
Coming over a particularly steep bit, I thought that coming over the top was going to one of two things 1. Huzzah we've done it! or 2.
Fortunately it was the first. We had conquered the Sron and had the most fabulous views to show for it
We hurriedly threw our layers back on as the North wind was very cold, and I did another panorama with my new toy. Less accidental glove than last time...progress!
However, we still had a long way to go! Coming over the top, the bulk of Creag Mhor itself loomed ahead. But the sun was shining, the worst (we hoped) was behind us and we had the hills to ourselves
After a quick refuel, we headed on up. Although still uphill, the going was much easier here.
Creag Mhor ahead
Looking ahead to the now impressive looking ridge up to the summit of Creag Mhor, we decided that crampons would be sensible. We headed for a big rock and set about getting them on. Always up for a laugh I also stuck my GoPro on my head and off we went.
Beast...
Crampon-ing up
What followed was 35 minutes of very very tough ascent.
Huffing and puffing my way to the top, I realised that I couldn't stop or the video would make me look like a wuss, so I powered on up, over false summit after false summit. Eventually I made it. The views were stunning
Who let this one out the asylum?!
Equally silly...wasn't sure which one I liked best
Heasgarnich from Creag Mhor
It was far too cold to hang around so after the obligatory summit photos, we checked the map and headed off the other side of the summit. We followed the ridge down towards Meall Tionail before heading round towards the bealach between Creag Mhor and Beinn Heagarnich. We stopped on a rock in the sun for a sandwich and enjoyed the views, including this one of the reason you can't take the direct route between these two hills!
Enjoying a sandwich
Looking ahead of us, we could see our route up Beinn Heasgarnich; Sron Tairbh. The Sron Mark II
It looked knackering
But we couldn't avoid it any longer. We tried to plan our route up it before making our way to the bealach and setting about it.
To start with it was 'steep but ok' but before long it became 'very steep but just about OK' before progressing to a full on 'how the hell am I supposed to get up that?!'
The weather had started to close in too; the wind was blowing, it was snowing and the visibility had gone downhill fast.
A moment of clarity - looking out to the Orchy hills
I found a very cool bit of ice and decided to see how effective my crampons were by walking across it.... Fortunately crampons are super awesome and I was fine!
Looking back down
We finally reached the top of Sron Tairbh, continued on up to Stob an Fhir-Bhogha and then the long but mercifully fairly flat summit ridge up to the summit was just about visible. The snow visibility was not good and there was a fair amount of tripping and near misses due to this, as well as tired legs!
I eventually made it to the top of Beinn Heasgarnich.
We didn't feel like hanging around so snapped a few photos and made a hasty retreat, but not before a slight disagreement about which direction to go in... The dispute quickly resolved, we headed back the way we had come before turning off downhill, gently at first, heading down a ridge and over another bump.
Sun in the distance
But then the slopes steepened significantly
Unable to really see what the snow was like, we went pretty warily at first, including some very steep snow that we traversed across.
We realised that, despite appearances, the snow was actually nice and soft. We enjoyed the ease of descending in soft snow as the feeling of sinking into it with the security of crampons was very welcome by this point! Looking back we were astonished at how steep it looked behind us, but were also very glad that we were on our way down as the weather was looking increasingly nasty further up.
Eventually we came out of the snow and had a pause to lose crampons and some layers as we were getting pretty warm again. Crossing the Allt Bad Odhar, we traversed round the base of a boggy Creagan Fhearchair to meet the track as it rose from the dam. All that remained was a long march along the track back to the car. Fortunately much of the ice had melted, although this had the effect of more puddles to fall in
Eventually we made it back down the zig zags, enjoying some atmospheric shots back down the valley:
And finally back to the car, which was a very welcome sight! We always knew that these two were going to be a long day, and were very glad to have come out of it with smiles on our faces and dry feet!
I had a go at editing the video footage. It's not very impressive but the views are awesome.
VIDEO