Beinn Teallach - confirmation

[Gordon Ballantyne]

On my first weekend out with RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue team, we'd bothy'd near Loch Pattack in April 1962.
Having done 4 Munros NW of Loch Pattock with Dinger on Saturday (Geal Charn, Creag Pitridh, Beinn a Chlachair & Carn Dearg) I went up Beinn a Chaorainn with Jake Whyte on Sunday. I can recall looking across to Teallach at the cornices on the E face, after we'd topped out on Chaorainn, but I've no idea whether we turned right for Creag Meagaidh or left over to Teallach. I'd ticked it off, but as time passed I thought that - right over Creag Meagaidh was more likely, as we didn't normally bother with Corbetts in this Munro-rich area at that time. So I thought I'd better do it anyway - to be sure, to be sure.

Wed was forecast for a good day and with GordonC Munro-bagging from Kinlochewe, got off at 5.30am to Laggan from Westhill in glorious sunshine
On arrival, someone else turned into the parking area in front of me, so I did a loop via the Laggan dam car park (negotiating a couple o muckle trucks having a rest there) to allow this car to park up before I caused a snarl-up on the road.

The car park near Rough Burn

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The guy who'd just parked up was from Stirling and was planning on doing the Chaorainn/Teallach loop.
I headed off up the forest track, passing a couple of vans belonging to a drilling company in a layby on the forestry track. I could hear some activity up through the trees to the NE. The road had been improved for the extra traffic with some heavy metalling - the kind that rattles your teeth loose on a bike descent.

Easains from the newly metalled forestry track

The ford across the Alt Choarainn was a dawdle due to the recent paucity of rain.
There was still some woolly morning clouds sticking to the tops, but the forecast was good and I believed the meteorologists !
Walked up alongside the forest and through the gate at the top, then plotted a boggy course up the W side of the burn descending from Teallach.
On this stretch, saw some Grouse behaviour that I hadn't observed before. This single male trotted away from me in spurts, giving a single cluck intermittently - trying to attract my attention. This seemed similar to the broken wing display routine, to draw me away. Presumably it was guarding a brooding female.

L. Treig from the top of the forestry.

L. Treig and the Easains from higher up

Kept losing the path until it crossed to the other side of the burn and became more distinct, after a brightly coloured patch of moss at about 500m.

The multi-coloured moss by the path

Every time I lost the faint path, I remonstrated with myself, saying " ye've lost it again ye scut".
( I'd been reading Ken Crockett's fantastic book on Nevis, where he quoted Jimmy Marshal chiding one of his climbing companions & called him a "wee scut") . What a wonderfully expressive noun, - especially when issued with the customary Creag Dhu venom. It was stuck in my head and for some reason kept coming out in a random fashion ! The path now became more defined and easy for this scut to follow.
The morning cloud was clearing rapidly as the sun warmed everything up. From here, a pleasant plooter up to the N cairn.
Why is it, that when you look across to another cairn from the one your at, the other one always looks higher ?
After a Markies cheese and bacon sausage roll, I sauntered across to the other top - just to check, and yes, the one I'd left looked higher !

Beinn Chaorainn, Craig Meagaidh & Stob Pointe Coire Ardair

The Ben Alder hills - scene of my first bagged Munros in '62

The full shilling view to the south

Both tops of Beinn Teallach

The views across to the Aonachs, Grey Corries and the Easains was simply braw. As were the views to Meagaidh range and everything to the west, which cleared by the minute.
It was a real wrench to leave the top, but just a few paces south, I spotted the wee conifer growing in a sheltered neuk. what a hardy tree to survive on a summit !

The conifer on the S summit

The wee tree in its summit neuk

Someone had built a wee howf just a bit further on down the hill.

The S summit howf

On the way back down I met a couple from Northumberland on their way up, having a "wildlife break".
Turned out that their son works in an office across the main road from where I stay. Sma world !

Back at the car, I finished the last of Markies sausage rolls along with the rest of my coffee, which was surprisingly still quite hot.
The drive home was held up just outside Aviemore, where a Land Rover and trailer had run into a ditch on the old A9. A helpful timber truck driver tried to pull the L/R out with his grab, but it didn't seem to have enough power. Eventually they gave up and cleared the road, allowing the traffic to flow again.
Stopped for a cuppa & a leg stretch at the Fire station cafe in Tomintoul, where a cyclist was drying his gear from yesterdays rain on the tables outside. He'd just cycled up over the Lecht on his way to Aviemore.
I warned him about the uphill pull out of Bridge of Brown as he seemed to think it was downhill all the way.........
The rest of the drive home was uneventful. Fit a braw day !