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Friday 2nd November 2018 – Gorton8.13km
164m ascent
1 hour 25 mins
I finally got away from Glasgow, followed the world’s slowest drivers up the road and finally arrived at the parking area. It was dark and starting to rain. Dougie rocked up just as I was about to leave so I waited a few minutes and we set off together, arriving at Gorton in time for a great fire, hot food and good company.
Alan’s photos of our merry band
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Saturday 3rd November 20186.6km
317m ascent
1 hour 55 mins
The next morning everyone else slowly departed into the rain and we enjoyed cake and custard before deciding that we needed to get out and do something. Waterproofs on – it was still raining but I had identified a 2 hour window where the weather was to be less awful – and we headed out the bothy and up the hill behind it towards Meall a’ Ghortain.
Looking back to Gorton Bothy
Down the glen – the Orchy munros on the left
We climbed up, skirting around the left hand side of Meall a’ Ghortain and onto a boggy plateau – Leathad Mor in the distance. It was a bit windy but the rain remained at a drizzle for the most part.
We had to drop a little across the plateau and it became pretty boggy (there were some poor route choices and Malcy had wet feet pretty quickly) The rain also came in and obscured our target….
We reached the summit after 55 minutes – not an arduous climb by any means but it felt like hard enough work given the conditions
We didn’t hang around on the summit for long.
Looking back to Meall a‘ Ghortain
Towards Rannoch Moor – the views from here would be fabulous in better conditions but it didn’t look likely to change today
We plodded back the way we had come, until I suggested we went over Meall a’ Ghortain instead of around it – “the views might clear” I said.
It was a stupid idea and I had to take all the blame
“WHY AM I HERE?!”
As we slipped and slid our way back down to the bothy the rain and wind increased and the whole experience became pretty nasty
We were very glad to be back inside but glad we had made the effort to get out.
A few card games and cups of tea later it was time to get the fire on and start the process of drying everything out…it turns out our fire was too good as I singed the bobble of my hat!
While the weather raged outside we were warm and cosy in the bothy – instead of putting on his horrible wet boots Malcy used my red sparkly flip flops to answer the call of nature outside
Candles in the window!
Eventually the rain did stop and it became a lovely evening – we even dared poke our heads out the door to have a wee look at the stars! It looked like Sunday would be a nicer day….
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Sunday 4th November 20188.13km
42m ascent
1 hour 20 mins
We had a relatively early start and got everything packed away. I was ready first so I just got going – Malcy would catch me up with his bike soon enough.
Gorton Bothy
Beinn Achaladair and Beinn an Dothaidh
Impressive corrie
Eventually this loser caught me up….
Even a wee bit of sunshine in the distance…
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Back at the cars minimal fussing was done and we headed down the Glen Orchy road, left Malcy’s car down the end and headed back up in mine. Boots on we headed a few metres along the road before heading through a gate and along a very boggy ATV track.
19.91km
1421m ascent
7 hours
Looking towards Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dotaidh
It was a beautiful morning – looking back to Beinn Mhic-Mhonaidh
Initially we had hoped the track might head up the way we wanted but as we reached the foot of the hill it was clear that the track was going along the glen so we left it and headed directly uphill through bog and tussocks.
The sun was breaking through the clouds and lighting up the impressive quartzite seam on Beinn Udlaidh
Looking back down
As we climbed higher the going got better underfoot but it also got steeper. I wasn’t feeling my best so just put my head down and get on with it.
It was getting windier and windier too…. Finally we reached the ridge which made for easier walking, but my hat blew off
Silhouettoes
Bridge of Orchy towards Loch Tulla
The wind was pretty brutal as we made our way along the summit ridge. The view across to the Orchy Munros and Corbetts was impressive
Finally we were nearly at the summit – the ridge down towards Tyndrum
It was windy on the summit of Beinn Bhreac-Liath but the views were good
Beinn Dubhchraig, Ben Oss & Ben Lui
Beinn Bhreac-Liath summit
We were not hanging around so carried on down steeply towards the bealach.
As we descended we could see a person in red heading down towards the bealach from the other direction. “Wouldn’t it be funny if it was someone we knew” I said….it turned out it was Sue! Small world…we eventually continued in our separate directions.
Sue heading up Beinn Bhreac-Liath
Beinn Udlaidh ahead
Ben More & Stob Binnein
Bogs
We made our way across the wide boggy bealach and began to head upwards again – we even picked up a path which led us through the crags.
As we climbed higher we had views down onto the Oban road and Lochan na Bi
Down the glen
As we climbed we were nicely sheltered from the wind – it seemed a good spot for some lunch. We sat on a rock and enjoyed the views while we ate cheese
Soon we came out onto the top and made our way towards the summit – over the quartzite seam which we had seen from below.
There was a cairn on the seam but another a little further on – we weren’t sure which was the summit but here’s Malcy posing on the biggest cairn.
And me taking a turn
Although the wind had dropped a little it still wasn’t really hanging around weather so continued onwards – the Graham Beinn na Sroine in the distance
The same shot zoomed – Loch Fyne in the distance
Graham-bound
As we headed onwards – looking back to Beinn Udlaidh, pretty impressive on both sides!
Towards Starav and co (identifying these took a certain amount of debate
)
We skirted the side of Meall Garbh and could see the whole way ahead – including the forest
We could see across to Lui – looking spectacular in the early evening light
North – Starav and co again
The Crianlarich hills
As we headed down we scoped out our route through the forest (last time Malcy had messed up and ended up bashing through the forest
)
Into Mirkwood….
Looking back
Last view ahead before we headed into the depths of the forest…
It wasn’t too bad underfoot except for a few bits of swamp to negotiate and soon we started to make our way out of the forest…
Me playing catch-up (I’d stopped for yet another pee
)
Ben Lui
Finally free from the forest we started the final ascent to Beinn na Sroine. We realised we were a bit early for sunset so hung around a bit as we were relatively sheltered here.
Lovely evening light on Beinn Mhic-Mhonaidh
We tried to walk slowly but neither of us were very good at it….so we stopped to look back again
Finally we were onto the summit and a short walk to the trig point – Ben Lui was still looking awesome
We fooled around on the trig point for a while
Then it was time to add more clothes (this didn’t go well for me
Ben Cruachan was stubbornly remaining in the cloud
But I was absolutely right about the sunset – the sun was going to set right down Loch Awe, and with any luck it would be a good one
Beinn Mhic-Mhonaidh with Starav behind
Still no Cruachan
Shame I’d left the good camera at home as the forecast had been rubbish
It was not the weather for taking off gloves and Malcy was struggling with the gloves and touch screen combo….until I suggested this option
We hoped that the sun would pop out the bottom….which it did….but it went straight into another lower load of cloud
Still, the reflections on Loch Awe were….awesome…
With the onset of darkness imminent we decided to get moving – we would still get views of the bouncy-bouncy light (weirdly Malcy understood what I meant
) as we continued down the ridge…
Bouncy-bouncy light
It was a nice descent as we headed down the ridge – easy underfoot and there was even a vague path most of the way, which eventually turned into an ATV track. Although we had already identified our entry point into the trees, this made it even easier and we found our way on the descent track with no problems at all.
Last photo before dropping into the forest
The track was a far better one than we had expected – it zig-zagged steeply initially before becoming a little easier on the knees. As we got deeper into the forest we added head torches.
Malcy’s lumen head
We dropped height easily and the only problem came when we hit a forestry track not marked on the map which was running along the hill….we followed it left which turned out to be a bad decision because it ran out….back again….we had a scout around in the dark and found a continuation of our track (it was well hidden) which became boggier but led us easily back to Malcy’s car. Huzzah! Even better - my feet were still dry - my new boots are awesome
Jaxter’s lumen head
An easy drive back up the glen to Colonel Mustard and we parted company again after yet another fabulous weekend
