Overnight solo traverse of Ben Oss & Beinn Dubhchraig
Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 7:03 pmWith the longer daylight nights, cheap advance rail fairs and an excellent weather forecast I decided Sunday night would be the best opportunity to kick off the 2016 season overnight hillwalks (albeit solo)
I had originally planned a traverse of Ben Lui and Beinn A'Chlieb from Tyndrum but this was quickly changed when the hill came into view on the train and the snow coverage on the Eastern side was assessed. Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhchraig were my plan B, a west to east route via Coire Laoigh at the head of Glen Cononish was decided.
I alighted the train at Tyndrum Upper at 8:45pm and made my way past the 'by the way hostel' and into the forestry, by 11pm I had made it to the head of Glen Cononish directly under the imposing bulk of Ben Lui, light levels had dropped beyond the ability of my natural night vision so out came the head torch.
I started to make my way up the steep path-less Coire Laoigh but after an hour (and multiple tumbles) I decided to have a rest at 650m, this turned into a full on kip after I climbed into my cosy bivvi bag, overnight conditions were pretty mild despite the beautiful star studded crystal clear sky.
I awoke at 4:30am, packed up and continued up to the Bealach that links Ben Lui with Ben Oss, reaching the summit at 1029m just in time for the sunrise at 5:30am.
With an advance train ticket only valid for a specific train I was under pressure to make sure I caught it so didn't hang about at the summit too long, I made my way across the bealach and reached the summit of Beinn Dubhchraig (978m) an hour later
The decent from Beinn Dubhcraig was horrendous, with a very boggy and bearly visible path I fell over more than once ending up caked in mud.
Eventually after a couple of navigational errors I reached the main A82 road with a nice easy (despite being deliberately run off the road by a 4x4) walk back to Tyndrum in time for the train back to Glasgow
I had originally planned a traverse of Ben Lui and Beinn A'Chlieb from Tyndrum but this was quickly changed when the hill came into view on the train and the snow coverage on the Eastern side was assessed. Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhchraig were my plan B, a west to east route via Coire Laoigh at the head of Glen Cononish was decided.
I alighted the train at Tyndrum Upper at 8:45pm and made my way past the 'by the way hostel' and into the forestry, by 11pm I had made it to the head of Glen Cononish directly under the imposing bulk of Ben Lui, light levels had dropped beyond the ability of my natural night vision so out came the head torch.
I started to make my way up the steep path-less Coire Laoigh but after an hour (and multiple tumbles) I decided to have a rest at 650m, this turned into a full on kip after I climbed into my cosy bivvi bag, overnight conditions were pretty mild despite the beautiful star studded crystal clear sky.
I awoke at 4:30am, packed up and continued up to the Bealach that links Ben Lui with Ben Oss, reaching the summit at 1029m just in time for the sunrise at 5:30am.
With an advance train ticket only valid for a specific train I was under pressure to make sure I caught it so didn't hang about at the summit too long, I made my way across the bealach and reached the summit of Beinn Dubhchraig (978m) an hour later
The decent from Beinn Dubhcraig was horrendous, with a very boggy and bearly visible path I fell over more than once ending up caked in mud.
Eventually after a couple of navigational errors I reached the main A82 road with a nice easy (despite being deliberately run off the road by a 4x4) walk back to Tyndrum in time for the train back to Glasgow
