free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
After a stressful and traumatic weeke at home I asked George and Parminder if they fancied hitting the hills on the Sunday. They were both keen to get out again, we are now restricted to single hills due to the lack of daylight hours so where to go?
I initially suggested Beinn Mhanach and we all did a bit of researching to see if we could avoid the 7 river crossings. There were a couple of reports that we looked deeper into gman's heading from Auch Farm, I plotted out the route and the 1400m of ascent was not our idea of fun. We also looked at backpackers approach from Loch Lyon, but that was too far unless bikes were going to be used.
So Beinn Mhanach was binned and put aside for another day. Ben Challum would be an easier option with no river crossings so that was it settled. We met up at our usual place at 7am and we were at the layby on the A82 just before 9am. We had a drive down the Kirkton Farm road as there was a suggestion that parking could be an option, this turned out to be a negative as there were no parking signs.
Parminder parked his Beemer at the end of the layby behind the 7 other cars and once kitted up we set off.
Early morning frost evident
Kirkton Farm
My photo is better
Rams reluctant to pose, had rather frosty backs
The old Kirkton Burial Ground
The new burial ground, what a beautiful spot
Plenty of ice on show
Time to cross the railway line
It was after crossing the line we made a bit of a navigational error, we followed the obvious track to the left, whereas we should have headed up a grassy path. The next few photo's show how you are penalised if you make a slight mistake.
It was only when the track petered out that we checked our technical stuff and realised we were heading west instead of north and were about 500m left of the main path
Longish tufty grass on undulating hillside
George and Parminder enjoying terrain we are becoming used to
Cracking view though
Not far to the path now, as we could see quite a few folk heading uphill and we would overtake them all
Like dafties we climbed over the stile, following the group ahead. If we had paid more attention we could have over the flattened fence to the right
I took umpteen photo's of Ben More and co at various points as we gained height
Plenty of other walkers
The way ahead
It was about here that the temperature dropped and a breeze made it even cooler
If the ground wasn't frozen it would be the usual bogfest
Ben More again
You can see the dusting of snow on Ben More and co
We have reached the snow line, George loving the ascent
Parminder was getting excited as he thought this was the summit, he even got his camera out
George still loving the ascent
Ben More from a slightly different angle
Looking back
Towards the summit the terrain was completely different
Looking back
Video taken on the summit of Ben Challum
George showing Parminder how to switch on his camera
Ben More from the summit
A few summit photos
Heading down, the way ahead
Photo posing time
Nice frozen puddle
A different view of the burial ground
The local weather station
Explanation
The 4 rams looking a bit warmer
Bridge over the river Fillan
Looking east along the Fillan
Looking west
This turned out to be a cracking day in every way, thanks to Parminder for volunteering to drive.
