free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
No map today as we roughly followed the WH route, albeit the path was a bit intermittent.
A couple of weeks have quickly flown by since our last outing tackling the Grey Corries, Parminder was in demand down south and as such unavailable so I had a look to see what hills we could visit that Parminder has already ticked off.
Glen Spean looked like a perfect fit, George remembered his last visit for all the wrong reasons, finishing with head torches with white stuff on the ground. I checked my blog and was there 11 years ago and I don't remember about the hills at all.
George volunteered to drive and picked me up at 6am and as were going to plodding up the A9 again I suggested we have breakfast at Broxden, which keeps us going for an extra hour or so.
When George arrived for me he informed that he had suffered a bit of an equipment malfunction, end result his Camelbak bladder had a leak and he had to resort to the old fashioned method of carrying water bottles.
We arrived at the parking area, we noticed the hand made "No Parking" sign and even though it was Saturday we opted to park in the layby about 50m from the track entrance.
Once kitted up and on our way we had a brief chat with 3 guys who parked just off the track, they were planning to tackle Teallach only and although we saw them from on high we never came across them again.
Nice shot of Loch Laggan from the road
George multitasking prior to setting off
Plenty of forestry activity, good track BUT very damp in places
Usual complicated machinery
Low level shot
After what seemed like umpteen stops on the ascent we noticed we were being caught up and just before we reached the summit we were joined by Derek (DekTasker). Derek accompanied us for the rest of the day and it was great meeting you, it does seem that just about everyone who walks the hills is registered on WH.
As has already been reported by other walkers, these hills tend to attract water and the lower slopes on both hills were certainly damp. The good news is that my new boots (2nd outing) worked a treat and it really is fantastic to arrive back at the car with dry feet. They were even dry after the river crossing where the water was ankle deep, as George will demonstrate later.
Looking south, Loch Treig in the distance and Loch Laggan with it's own little cloud
Loch Treig zoomed, bit murky
The 3 guys we met earlier trying to cross the stream
Above photo zoomed
Beinn Teallach across the glen in the clag
Views starting to improve, wouldn't last as we would be in the clag soon
Loch Laggan and the dam looking quite spectacular
Thanks to Derek for taking the picture
Here he is, probably his first appearance on here - one of the thousands of 'lurkers', not anymore
George having a celebratory slurp from his water bottle
George leading the way off the summit
Long descent will begin soon
Looking northish
Northish again
The descent down to Tom Mor was easy and losing about 400m is never is never a good sign, the good news is that Beinn Teallach is one of the smallest Munros, height wise and the ascent was actually fairly easy. Maybe I am getting used to the extra weight of my boots, they are definitely much heavier than any of my previous ones.
Loch Sguadaig to the north
The summit area on Beinn Teallach, 2 separate cairns both the same height according to George's GPS
Loch Treig from the other side
Now the final descent, there were plenty of paths, all seemed to be heading SW down the shoulder, we did our own thing and headed down towards the island in the stream. The upper part of the descent was easy over nice soft grass so rapid progress was made. As we got lower the soft grass was mixed with water and a bit more care was required to avoid ending up on owns rear end.
The next and last problem was what we had been kind of waiting for, the river crossing. With a river crossing comes the same problem where and how are we going to get across. We wandered along the bank and George decided on a suitable spot. The stream wasn't huge but it was fast flowing and deep in places. Here are the photo's that may assist any future visitors.
Upstream
The island that we would try and get across to
Getting nearer now
Doesn't look very wide but it wasn't narrow enough for a leap, unless you are a long jumper
George demonstrating how to concentrate
Ankle deep
Derek showing how to cross with just one pole
George spotted this little chap
After the river crossing it was then just a matter of walking back along the track to the car. We were surprised to see about 5 cars parked at the start of the track. This turned out to be a great day on 2 hills that are surrounded by more interesting and exciting hills. Thanks to George for driving and it was great to meet Derek, hopefully we will meet up again and don't forget to get your photo's on Flickr.
Next for me (hopefully) will be a trio of Marilyns on my way home from Englandshire next Saturday.
