The Tarmachan Ridge
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:13 am
Meall nan Tarmachan had been suggested to me on a WH forum earlier this year and since I checked it out on the site and various books I was desperate to give it a go, hoping the weather would be suitable to follow the ridge and visit all four peaks on the route.
As I parked in the small area beyond the Ben Lawers centre I realised I had forgotten to pick up an OS map on the way Typically well organised! Nevertheless the four of us set off at around midday, armed only with a compass and the route summary from WH which I had saved to my phone, and were soon caught in a race against the cloud to reach the summit... needless to say, the cloud won... gutted! And so we remained in the cloud for the majority of the day.
Without a map on the day, this is the route I reckon we took.
As with The Cobbler earlier in the week, the initial climb to the minor summit -where we stopped for lunch - was tough on the old pins... this does get easier, right? But after the initial battering we found some kinda rhythm and were soon at the cairn atop Meall nan Tarmachan.
Happy to have reached the highest point of the day, and being unable to see the next top on the route - Meall Garbh - we followed the WH directions and eventually got a short break in the cloud to take a few shots.
We stuck to the path through the tops of Meall Garbh and Beinn an Eachan, enjoying some scrambling and big steps on the descent from Meall Garbh.
We then followed the path to the top of Creag na Caillich, where we stopped for a while debating the route of descent and filling up on satsumas. In the end I won and we headed south along the east ridge of Creag na Caillich.
From here we followed a feint path round to the right (westward) until we reached a spot where we all felt comfortable heading down into the valley - which was quite boggy in places - and headed eastward to join the track (which seemed to go on forever) back to the car park.
Personally, I loved this walk and was only slightly disappointed we missed out on some fantastic views for the 2nd time in 4 days. Hopefully we will have better luck on Wednesday (Ben More) but that is unlikely according to the forecast. Nevermind, it's all good.
As I parked in the small area beyond the Ben Lawers centre I realised I had forgotten to pick up an OS map on the way Typically well organised! Nevertheless the four of us set off at around midday, armed only with a compass and the route summary from WH which I had saved to my phone, and were soon caught in a race against the cloud to reach the summit... needless to say, the cloud won... gutted! And so we remained in the cloud for the majority of the day.
Without a map on the day, this is the route I reckon we took.
As with The Cobbler earlier in the week, the initial climb to the minor summit -where we stopped for lunch - was tough on the old pins... this does get easier, right? But after the initial battering we found some kinda rhythm and were soon at the cairn atop Meall nan Tarmachan.
Happy to have reached the highest point of the day, and being unable to see the next top on the route - Meall Garbh - we followed the WH directions and eventually got a short break in the cloud to take a few shots.
We stuck to the path through the tops of Meall Garbh and Beinn an Eachan, enjoying some scrambling and big steps on the descent from Meall Garbh.
We then followed the path to the top of Creag na Caillich, where we stopped for a while debating the route of descent and filling up on satsumas. In the end I won and we headed south along the east ridge of Creag na Caillich.
From here we followed a feint path round to the right (westward) until we reached a spot where we all felt comfortable heading down into the valley - which was quite boggy in places - and headed eastward to join the track (which seemed to go on forever) back to the car park.
Personally, I loved this walk and was only slightly disappointed we missed out on some fantastic views for the 2nd time in 4 days. Hopefully we will have better luck on Wednesday (Ben More) but that is unlikely according to the forecast. Nevermind, it's all good.