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Lynne and I had kindly been invited to spend the weekend with Heather in sunny Oban some time back and we had settled on this weekend, in line with Covid, we remained aware of the government guidelines and felt this would be doable.
We had several hills pencilled in for a Saturday option, 3 Corbetts or Beinn Lora Sub 2k, By Friday evening, we had settled on Creach Bheinn for its proximity, good track for the majority and that Heather had already done it lol.
Arrived at the layby start point around 10, booted up and headed off at 10:15 am
- Ready for the off
The weather forecast wasn't great and had got worse, drizzly rain pretty much all day with the window of better conditions getting smaller around mid afternoon. Heading up the track that is also the start point for Beinn Sgulaird we quickly gained height and caught some views back down Loch Creran to the bridge at Creagan but the cloud line stayed low on top of the surrounding hillsides.
- View back to Loch Creran and the Creagan bridge
- Still smiling in the smir
The track up just keeps going, meandering up, down, round and over and we caught the odd glimpse of the higher ridges on our target Corbett. It was lovely being out, just us, no sign of anyone else as we passed the Sgulaird cairn and carried on up.
- Great track for much of the way
The WH route has you leaving the track and heading round to Creag na Cathaig but Heather suggested we go a little further up to the top of the beallach, marked by a large cairn to the left of the path and head up from there.
Heading across wet but not too boggy ground, again the hillside in front of us came and went in the mist. These conditions made small, close areas appear huge and very far away. Nice to suddenly be at the top of something when it looked much further away.
- The only way is up
- Left the track and bimbling around in the mist and cloud
As we looked for our way up to the wee top at 804mtrs, we opted not to go up the side of a waterfall (this is prob not there normally but there had been a lot of rain) We veered left slightly but not as far as the rocky craggy bits and pushed up a fairly steep section.
As we gained height, the visibility closed in as we were now in the cloud layer, No real views for the rest of our time at height. We reached the 804mtr marker cairn and took our bearing off. Knowing it wasn't too far and with very poor vis, we kept an eye on the surrounding land and something just didn't feel right. We were losing height, gradually but down was not how we thought this should be going lol Our route on the map was pretty much level from the 804 marker over to the summit, so we stopped, had a recheck of the map and a good stare into the mist in the direction of the summit,,hoping the mist would lift for just a moment lol Lynne had wet feet, Heather was feeling cold and I had suspicious cold trickles down my back and front which made me suspect my waterproof was not quite waterproof anymore lol. We considered going back to the 804 marker and starting again and also considered just bailing due to the cold and wet but Lynne and Heather layered up and we had another chat and look around.
- Wistfully wishing the clouds would lift lol
We did have a small dip to our left and reckoned the summit was just over on the other side. The swirling mist made the dip look like a big drop but having seen 3 very small lochans that were on the map, we then realised it was just a hop down and back up the other side. We were in the right direction, just a few degrees off the bearing.
- Strava showing the point we started to question our direction and impending mutiny :-)
Picked up a path of sorts and pushed on for another 10 mins or so before seeing a lovely trig and shelter cairn appear through the mist. Rain had come and gone in the shape of drizzly showers but nothing heavy. So glad we persevered with the navigation and no vis lol. Heather assured us that there were amazing views,,somewhere,,, out there,,but not to be seen today. Had another wee seat, a nibble and i added a fleece layer and gloves as it was getting a bit chilly.
- Got there,,,,eventually
Heading off the summit after 15-20 mins, felt good to have achieved a summit.
Made our way North and dropped off prob a bit further east than planned so came down into rocky stretches but nothing too bad and as we came down under the cloud layer again, we could see the many bumps and blimps we had to get over before heading back to the main track. Perfectly good conditions, not too bad underfoot so we just ambled our way out, eventually seeing the top curves of the track.
Back to the track, bite to eat and remove the fleece layers before heading down the main track.
- Below the cloud now
- Heading back down the track and our reward
- Our Reward
We had taken 7 hrs to do this, but Strava showed moving time of only 4.5 hrs,,just shows you how much we stopped to natter, but hey,, who's rushing?
Corbett 39 for me, 45 for Lynne and a repeat for Heather, but a fab day out and not another soul in site.