Small Peak, Big Peak (Binneins Beag & Mor)

[Alastair S]

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Day 1 of the Granite City Hillwalkers meet at Kinlockleven, but day 2 for me having done The Easains the day before. Weather dawned not nearly so bad as forecast with the odd patch of blue between heavy cloud. Breezy but not the predicted gales. Some peeps just wanted to do Sgurr Eilde Mor but I opted to join the other Alistair and head for the more distant Binnein Beag with Binnein Mor and perhaps Na Gruagaichean too (weather & tiredness permitting).

Start point: Blackwater Hostel & Campsite

So 6 of us started from our hostel – the Blackwater Hostel (& Campsite) just behind the Ice Factor. Ended up getting our route out of Kinlochleven slightly wrong in that we went up the “wrong” side of one of the burns the feed into the village. Mind you the “proper” path is very erroded so the faint path to the south was just as easy as the marked path to the north. Got 15 minutes of rain on the way out but this turned out to be the only significant rain we got all day. We split at the land rover track that runs from the Mamore Lodge down to Loch Elide Mor.



Loch Leven from behind Kinlochleven



Coire an Lochain & Sgurr Eilde Mor



Binnein Mor from summit of Binnein Beag



The other Alistair viewing The Grey Corries from Binnein Beag



Binnein Mor & unnamed lochain from half way down Binnein Beag. The flickr page has notes that show the route we took up up Binnein Mor - which was up the ridge to the left (on flickr you have to hover the mouse over the picture to bring up notes)



From left to right: Sgurr Eilde Mor, Coire an Lochain & Sgor Eilde Beag from the East flank of Binnein Mor, with Blackwater reservoir in the distance. This picture also shows the large drop in altitude & the path from the lochain (you may need to visit the larger version on flickr to see the path)



Binnein Beag from Binnein Mor (you can see why they are called Small Peak & Big Peak!)



Binnein Mor summit with summit of Ben Nevis obscured by cloud on the left



Another of Binnein Beag from Binnein Mor, this time from the summit



Na Gruagaichen from Binnein Mor summit



Loking back at Binnein Mor summit from the top at the junction of the 3 ridges that make up Na Gruagaichen, Binnein Mor and Sgor Eilde Beag (another top of Binnein Mor). It was at this point that we were hit by what felt like 60mph winds. We both had difficulty standing up and decided that going along the ridge to Na Gruagaichen was best left for another day. 100m on and 10m down and the wind was just a strong breeze again. Its a wonder that I managed to get such level picture!



Coire an Lochain & Sgurr Eilde Mor from Sgor Eilde Beag. There is a good path that zig-zags down the SSE side of Sgor Eilde Beag that isn't shown on any map I've seen. This saves going round to the marked path from Coire an Lochain to half way between Sgor Eilde Beag & the 3 ridge top.



The way back showing the land rover track. Despite the ominous clouds we didn't get rained on



Evening over Loch Leven - wild camper in the lower left


Then down the very eroded path we aimed to take on the way up. More midges in the woods, but nearly so bad as the previous evening. So, the highest & the [almost] lowest of the Mamores. It may have only been 21km but 1745m of ascent is easily my highest 1 day tally and my legs & knees knew about it. Also my first Mamores and I was suitably impressed - bring on the Ring of Steall


BTW MWIS 0 : Alastair 2 (aggregate 0:4)

Full flickr set here

[Stretch]

Great pics Alastair! I did the four eastern Mamores over the past 2 days and really enjoyed all of them. I didn't fancy going up Binnein Mor from the north and instead, opted to go back around to the path that zig zags up between Sgor Eilde Beag and Binnein Mor, well worth if if you're carrying a heavy pack loaded with wildcamping gear as you can simply drop the pack at the top and stroll over to the munro summit.

[skuk007]

There's some great pictures there. Makes these peaks look extremely wild and challenging. Can't wait.

[kinley]

Beautiful hills - great pictures.

Nice one Alastair

A wild camp trip this way is on the to-do list

[mountain coward]

Some superb pictures there - especially seeing as you went up an unusual ridge onto Binnein Mor and therefore got a new angle on things - what was that ridge like? (I can't get to Flickr anyway so can't look at your further pics or notes)... I went up onto the right hand ridge which was grassy, easy and straightforward (but then I'm a mountain coward) - I did look at the other 2 ridges though and wonder

I thought Binnein Beag was going to be terrifying as I hate steep scree but found it really lovely when I got there - may well do those 2 again (and I'm not saying that about many Munros!)

Just one small point - where you have a pic saying 'na Gruagaichean again...' it's actually a Binnein Mor pic

[Alastair S]

Thanks for the kind comment peeps

what was that ridge like? (I can't get to Flickr anyway so can't look at your further pics or notes)... I went up onto the right hand ridge which was grassy, easy and straightforward (but then I'm a mountain coward) - I did look at the other 2 ridges though and wonder

From the lochain between the Binneins we went across to the deep river gully the holds Allt a' Gharbh Choire, up beside this gully (fairly steep, grassy and not a problem), crossed over once we were above it, and then up the rocky ridge that curves round to the main south ridge, then up this south ridge to the top. There was a bit of clambering about on the rocky stuff but nothing scary - we kept to the coire side but its a quite broad ridge.

Just one small point - where you have a pic saying 'na Gruagaichean again...' it's actually a Binnein Mor pic

Thanks -now fixed

[Paul Webster]

Stunning stuff - especially love the last of the pics of Sgurr Eilde Mor - magical light.

[gaffr]

I think that many of these images capture the atmosphere of this dramatic area of the highlands.

[mountain coward]

Thanks for the info on that ridge - I'll give it a go next time

[Barnety2000]

Another excellent report on the eastern Mamores- they certainly seem to be popular at the moment! You didn't fancy the wild camp then...