Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhchraig

[seamus0]

This walk was done on Saturday in perfect winter weather...the type of day you dream of having...no cloud, not a breath of wind, and glorious views for miles around. If I had followed MWIS predictions I probably wouldnt have ventured out! Makes you wonder!
We started at the car park at Dalrigh (344291) just past Crianlarich. You cant miss it as its signposted on the left.From the car park, take the steps down and follow the track that crosses over the River Fillan. We started at 8:45am with these great views of the Crianlarich hills and just knew it was going to be a good 'un..

Ben More, Stob Binnian etc

Sunrise!

After the bridge, take the path going right in a westerly direction. It then passed over another bridge that crosses over the railway track. Walk along the path for about 400m. Keep an eye out for a pile of stones next to a small track on your right hand side. take this track which leads to the footbridge over the Allt Glean Auchreoch. Its in a bit of disrepair, but will still take your weight!

Footbridge

A small track follows the side of the river through the sparse woods. It eventually heads further SW, keeping close to Allt Coire Dubhchraig.

Tramping thru woods

After about 1.5hrs of steady easy climbing, you will get out of the woods and start the steeper climb up the Coire between Beinn DubhChraig and Ben Oss. We essentially followed the stream continuing in a SW direction towards the small lochan (303258).

Views from the top of the woods

We started hitting the snow line at around 650m. It was still quite soft, but not too deep so we made good headway.

Up to the Coire

As we continued, the views just kept getting better and better, I think this is the Glen Etive hills that was to the north of us?

Glen Etive Hills?

We got our first views of Ben Lui as we approached the col at around 900m.

Ben Lui

No sign of the Lochan at the Col, as it was covered in snow. Rather than do Beinn DubhChraig first, we decided to head over to Ben Oss first, as we knew we would be coming back this way on our return journey. We also wanted to get more fantasic views of Ben Lui before the weather set it (if it ever did!). So, form the col, we descended 200m. This section was a bit slippy and steep, and could have been done easier with crampons on. So, at 700m we started our climb up to Ben Oss which also looked fantastic...

Ben Oss

We followed the main ridge up. At around 940m the ridge levels off, and we got a view of the main route up. It looked a bit dicey, so after some discussion we put on our crampons. Just as well, as the ridge was hard compact snow.

Main ridge at 940m

After an exhilirating climb up the ridge we made it to the top of Ben Oss, 4 hrs after leaving the carpark and were again blessed with fantastic views of its bigger brother next door..

Climbing up the ridge

climbing up the ridge 2

Ben Lui again

This is Ben Lomond I think and a mist covered Loch to the south of us?

Loch Lomond

Top of Ben Oss

So after a spot of well-deserved lunch and sucking up as much of the views as we could we were aware we still had the baby brother of the hill we passed earlier still to do, and retrace our steps.

Beinn Dubh Chraig From Ben Oss, Ben More in the background

So we plodded down the ridge back to the col, and kept our crampons on to climb up Bein Dubhchraig. this certainly made it easier going up the steep bits again. After we reached the top col, it was an easy yomp to the top.

Tpp of Beinn Dubhchraig

Rather than go back down to the Col for the 3rd time, we decided to head due North and go down the Coire. Not the smartest of ideas, as it proved to be quite steep and tricky (especially when a certain someone in the group left their axe at the top naming no names ! I would probably advise going back to the col again for future reference in the winter as it involved slow crampon work to get down safely.
Managed to get back to the car park just as the sun was setting, continuing to take in the fantastic views of the hills around us!

Surrounding hills to the north

One of those great winter days! To make it even better, a chap behind us, found the long lost ice axe at the top of DubhChraig! So a big thankyou from my mate if you're reading this!

[Paul Webster]

- looks a great day, some stunning shots of Ben Lui.

[Alastair S]

Great stuff - some crackin' photos there. Particularly like 'Ben Lui again'.

[seamus0]

Yeah, we met a chap who had went up the coire on Ben lui that day and finished off with the other 3 munros...long day! The shots of it look like its one to do for another day! It was breath-taking!

[monty]

Hi Seamus0,
Looks like a good walk with excellent weather. Nice pictures especially of the ridgeline up Ben Lui.

[davgil]

Great report seamus0.
Fantastic set of photos too.

[rockhopper]

I really like the hills in this area and it's great to see them in the snow - well done

[seamus0]

Cheers, its always an extra bonus with good weather!

[Rekrab]

how was the low level walk part? the walk along srath fillian? I've always found it to have a bogg rating of 10!!!!! i've never ventured there in winter thou.

MacKenzie,

[Alan S]

Good report and some excellant pics,love the shots of Ben Lui
Good to see the old bridge still looks safe

[seamus0]

cheers, yeah the walk up i would suspect is a bit of a midden during the summer! We were lucky as it was all frozen over so wasnt too bad. It did look like a herd of cows had trampled over some parts of it!

[Merry-walker]

Beautiful pictures