Simply Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhchrag

[montie]

Ok so another weekend and another hill walk. Legs feel ok and Craigs has Ben Oss and Dubhchrag to do. The weather forecast is not particularly good with rain forecast intermittently through the day. The plan was to get up early but again on this occasion we didn't start walking until 1040 approximately. This couple of hills usually involves a pretty bogging initial ascent so I had decided to try an unusual approach. I knew the track into Cononish was particularly good and so decided we would walk in on track and take an opportunity when it arose to ascend the pathless hillside directly.

So off we go, heading along the track to the mine and under the railway. The river looked particularly dry as we walked along and after about 2km Craig suggested that we cross the river and head south west up the hillside. There was a small gully up ahead and that is what we aimed for. The hillside was dry and apart from a failry steap section after about 100 metres of ascent we were soon on the relatively shallow but undulating hillside. The plan was to continue for another 1km across the hillside to reach the path running adjacent to the Allt Coire Dubhchrag and it didn't really take us long to get there. We had covered the first 4km and 350 metres of ascent in just over an hour so we are setting a reasonable pace.

The path continues in a gradual ascent for another 350 metres ascent over 1.5km before turning South East for the final easy 0.5km climb to the summit of Beinn Dubhchrag. There was a large group for the "Travelling Dangleberries" (I kid you not haha) packing up to head off to Ben Oss at the turning point below the summit.

So one hill bagged and one to go. We head off back down the path which then contours West curving below the spot height of 941 metres. Now looking at the map I realize that we may be able to save 1km of walking if we head directly up the hillside heading to the beallach below the spot height. We can here the Dangleberries over to our right and arrive at the beallach, after a steep grassy ascent, just before the leaders of the group. Its now a gentle enough ascent to the summit of Ben Oss only half a km away.

After a short break and wee chat we head of back the way we came down to the beallach. Now I had read the report by StevieC and I was quite interested in his descent from Benn Oss. It consists of a quite steep 650m descent down the rocky and grassy hillside and then a 7km walk out the glen on the Good track. So after talking with Craig he was happy with this plan.

The descent was steep in places but it really proved to be un-problematical apart from the seemingly continuous stress on the upper thighs. I didn't find it too bad but Craig, having not been out as much as me lately was feeling the pinch haha. It only took us half an hour to descend which was great. I get knee problems with miles and miles of gentle descent and absolutely hate it at times so this was like a breath of fresh air. It was now a simple traverse of the glen floor to the Allt an Rund burn meets the track. The walk out was a breeze.

Mind you, this wee route would be much more difficult in wet conditions and you may have problems crossing the burns in spate.