My plan was essentially to mix 3 routes together, ie katiebryso’s route from the main car park initially towards the bheallach between Beinn Ghlas and Corranaich before branching off north west up to Corranaich, then to a Choire Leith after which I would link up the WH route back down to the cairn at the Lochan an Lairige road and lastly walk the road north and west to 583417 at which point I planned to follow a track south to 580405 from where I would head SSE to Tarmachan and then the ridge or return back the usual way to the car park.
GPX of my track truncated due to number of trackpoints
I left the car park in the thick mist hoping that it wouldn’t stay this way all day. The track was easy going and I was soon at the point where the track splits to go either NE straight up Beinn Ghlas or NNE to the bheallach; it’s easy to pick the wrong track so stick to the left. The mist did clear a bit before reaching Coire Odhar to allow me to get some pictures but it then closed in again.
I continued on up to the bheallach at which point the track divided; east to Beinn Ghlas and west to Corranaich. As katiebryso had explained in her diary, there was a track all the way up the hill; even though it was steep in places, scrambling was not required and I did not have to use my hands at all.
The mist cleared again nearing the top of Corranaich and I had great views up the summit from there.
However, it was evident that the cloud level was fairly high as I could only see the tops of the higher surrounding hills. It’s a fairly flat top which extends both downwards to the south and to the north towards a Choire Leith. There are excellent views of Ben More, Stob Binnein, An Stuc and Meall Garbh to the east. I could also see the top of Meall Tarmachan above the cloud to the south west.
Having stopped to take photos and enjoy the views, I headed off north to a Choire Leith.
Initially I could see the ridge ahead but as I dropped downwards the mist and cloud closed in again. Before long I couldn’t see much again.
I was very conscious of ensuring I kept on the right direction as the WH summary warned about not taking the obvious NNW line. I came off the track and headed NW in the thick mist where I managed to pick up a track partially along the side of a burn all the time knowing that I couldn’t stray to the east because of the steep sides.
The going was easy under foot and I was soon climbing up a Choire Leith. The top is lower than Corranaich and was initially shrouded in cloud when I arrived. I waited a bit and fortunately the cloud cleared to allow more pictures again of the surrounding hills appearing above the cloud line.
I headed off in a SW direction towards the cairn on the Lochan na Lairige road and into the cloud. There was a track for most of the way albeit faint and disappearing in places. It was also fairly boggy in many places but I don’t think it was as bad as I was expecting - possibly because there hadn’t been any rain recently.
I came out the cloud close to a small dam in the upper reaches of the Allt Gleann Da Eig which flows northwards.
I kept heading SW past a small waterfall before picking up the good track on the last section before reaching the road.
My original thinking at first had been to head SSW up to Tarmachan but I was concerned about the rocky outcrops on the map. I walked round the road to a small car park at the point where the road turns from west to north. I crossed over a small burn and found the track which headed south. The going was easy and it wasn’t long before I got to the end of the track at around 580405.
As I could see the cloud and mist a little further up the hill, I took a reading with the plan of heading SSE aiming to arrive at the ridge track a little to the west of the summit as it looked like there may be rocky sections to the north of the summit.
Just to be doubly certain in the mist, I followed up the west side of the more westerly of two burns which flowed down the hillside. Further up the burn split twice and on both occasions I stayed with the more westerly stream. This made navigation a lot easier. Although there was no track to follow, the ground was soft underfoot albeit a little boggy in places - that said, it was a fairly hard walk up as the terrain got steeper and steeper.
Eventually I reached the ridge at the top and headed NE to the summit of Meall Tarmachan. It was still very misty and, as I could hardly see anything, I decided to leave walking the rest of ridge to a day with better weather. I sheltered from the wind just down from the summit cairn to have lunch and some hot coffee.
Batteries recharged, I headed off to the south down the track to the SE top and then back down to the road. The mist did clear very briefly on the way down and I got some photos looking back at Tarmachan.
It closed in again and didn’t clear until I got much further down.
On reaching the road after passing the small car park which is usually used for the Tarmachan ridge and crossing the bridge, I walked back to the car at the main Ben Lawers car park - it now contained a lot more cars and I could see all round and up to the lower reaches of the surrounding hills before the cloud line started.
