free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
A later start was planned but not as late as this lol,after a long journey hampered by road works and heavy traffic, and an hours driving around in the Benderloch area to find BEER!!! 5.5hrs after leaving home, we parked up beside another car in the wee spot at the top of the brae and headed off up Beinn Bhreac. Its pretty direct and just keeps going up.
- Ready for the off at 5:20pm
Carrying on from here over to the Graham summit of Mam Hael for around 8pm.. Tried pitching the tent on the summit but just couldn't find a spot big enough for the Banshee, so moved back down off the summit to a flat area with amazing views West over Loch Creran and beyond to Ardgour/Ardnamurchan, pitched in time for a fabulous sunset while munching our pasta and sipping our booze. Views over to Nevis and indeed all around were stunning.
- Views west on the ascent
- Arrived in time for sunset
- All set for bed in out cosy tent
A dry night and a little chilly as we sat with our beer and cider before giving up waiting for the moon to rise and heading to bed around 11pm. Great sleep.. Windy start, had to find shelter for the stove for the all important coffee. A bit of fruit for breakfast, didn't bother with the porridge.
John had a look over at the route to the Corbett, Creach Bheinn and decided to head over while I took down the tent and packed up the bags, (I had climbed the Corbett from the North only a few weeks ago so it was nice to be able to see the hill as we had no vis at all that day) With John taking only water and his poles,, this would be a speedy trip. All packed, I carried the bags up to the summit then thought it didn't make sense for John to return to the summit of Mam Hael as we were then heading back off the same way he had come. I carried all the kit and headed down the ridge a way, connected to John on the phone and confirmed we were on the same trajectory lol. We met on the ridge and checked our route ahead to Bheinn Mheadhonach. We were using a 1:50000 map, which i found a little confusing as Im used to using 1:25 and the distances didn't look as big as they did on they ground.
- Off for the rest of the round on Sunday morning
Dropping down and back up to Beinn Molurgainn didn't take too long, a bit steep on the last section but arrived at the lowest Graham of the trio in good time.
- First Graham of the second day
The section ahead to Beinn Mheadhonach on the other hand looked very long, very undulating,,,just VERY everything. There are two pretty significant bumps on the map, Meal Dearg and Meal Biorach, each involved a lot of up,,,then down, nothing technical but i wouldn't fancy navigating this in poor visibility
Coming off Meal Biorach we chose what we thought looked the least challenging section but this was still a VERY steep 280 mtr ascent directly to the last summit.
- Up up and away
- Second Graham of the day
The descent West then South West was a slog, constant down, undulating ground and tough underfoot. Scaled one deer fence and ripped my trousers, had to slide down a bracken covered bank to a small burn,,,almost ripped the erse of the same trousers lol,,muddy bum. Legs really feeling this constant down and were pretty shaky by the time we reached the road. Unfortunately, our penultimate hurdle was a large gate,,with a top section added and fenced off. We had to drop our bags and crawl under the gate,,more muddy bums. The ultimate hurdle was the 35 min walk back up a long hill on the single track road to the car, full sun, a pack getting heavier by the minute and hot sun. Pushed on up,,stopping only for a sip of water, to reach the car, change of clothes and a can of cider lol stuffed our faces with crisps and ice lollies from the wee Benderloch shop on the way.
- A well earned can on the way home
A lot of work involved in 3 Grahams, no path at any time but thankfully a glorious weekends weather and amazing visibility,,this would be thoroughly miserable in poor conditions lol