by munrowalker » Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:37 pm
Date walked: 26/09/2009
Time taken: 5 hours
Distance: 13 km
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First walk after my holidays and boy was I expecting it to be sore on the old legs! Sitting about for two weeks, drinking red wine, eating pizza and having an ice cream a day is now way to get in preparation for climbing more Munros!
My original plan had been to do a single hill as a break back into it after being a lazy get. But thankfully my mate Lewis who I'd met on the hills before the hols gave us a phone and persuaded us to go with him and 'super speed' Jimmy up Beinn a'Choichuill & Beinn Eunaich!
Me thought this sounded like a good idea, until Lewis said start time would be 6am! Ah well had agreed to go so no backing out!
Quietest ever drive up through Callander ever, usually that road is heaving with traffic.
Got to start at 7.45am just beside the tiny parking spot (well we thought it looked ok to park in) just at Castles Farm. Mist was in but was dry and not cold so fingers crossed for the conditions ahead. Had been absolutely soaking for last two months before hols, and had read all the reports on here recently of good conditons so was hoping was going to be ok.
Crackon up path alongside the Allt Mhouille which is dead easy to follow, trust me!
There's a small marker cairn where you can take the route up Stob Maol (you need the marker there, otherwise there's no way you'd see that path), but we fancied heading up Beinn a'Chochuill first, and at a fork in the track head right and to be honest just get on the hill and head straight up.
Nice and dry conditions heading up here, but within about 5 minutes Jimmy's way ahead of lewis and myself! Might be something to do with him being 5 stone lighter than us, but he's a machine on the hills! But we were to have the last laugh on him......
Just keep on plodding up here, path is pretty obvious, but views were still on existent with the mist being in, did manage to see the Bealach between it and Stob Diamh, think might have been doable for a VERY hard day.
Get up onto the ridge, lewis and Jimmy are certain they saw some Ptarmigan who've changed colour for winter, arghhh, guess its coming not a lot we can do about it. Now the ridge you think you can see the summit of Beinn a' Chochuill, but as always it s afalse summit, its maybe a km along, and feels longer than you think. Doesn't bother Lewis's dog Noah, who is having a whale of a time! Get to summit and see Jimmy who is sitting shivering, and we ask him how long he'd been waiting for us? 1/2 an hour? Sorry Jimmy, we may have been taking a while but was funny seeing you sitting shivering, why you didnae out your gloves on I dinnae ken! Felt good getting to top, but legs were well sore after having done nowt for three weeks, still glad to get them going again, next week will be nae bother.
Retrace steps back to where we'd climbed to the ridge and its straight onto the bealach for Beinn Eunaich, which is another 300m or so of ascent,cannae see it though as mist is still in (reason why no photos in this trip)
Easy enough climb up here, again following path, through some rocks, path does peter out a bit and keep reappearing but easy enough to keep heading up.
Get to top and once again Jimmy waiting for us, still always good to see him there as you know Jimmy will have done a recce to see what way is down, saves us doing it!
Glad to get ascent out of way, think all the hard stuff is out of the way, so we thought.... nice easy drop down for a while making great pace. Was passed by a guy who had started 2 hours after us, boy was he fast, reckoned Jimmy could have kept up with him if he hadn't us slowcoaches holding him back!
Final section on the hill is the hardest bit as its rather steep coming down off Stob Maol, and the footholds aren't that well defined, my legs were burning like anything and so was Lewis, Jimmy well he was off way up ahead of us again, reckon he's got springs for legs not muscle! Took longer than we thought getting down here as distance wasn't much but was really steep. Passed by a lady and her wee dog, she only had 2 or 3 Munro's left to complete and her wee dog had done about fifty of those, how such a wee thing could climb hills I dunno.
Back onto path and its a 20-30 minutes brisk stroll back to the car where its a quick change and off again. Nice stop off at the Rod & Reel for a lager tops (boy did that pint taste nice), with Lewis driving. Me being a big guy was crammed into the passenger seat with my legs round my neck thinking hmmm gonna get cramp here! Lo and behold I did and had to get out of car along the road to try and walk it off. Lewis and Jimmy didnae laugh either, well Jimmy was sound asleep, reckon Lewis was just glad he didn't get one himself!
Another cracking day on the hills, oh aye forgot mist didnae lift at all. Well it did lift but although the sky was totally blue and warm, there was still mist hanging round the tops, including Ben More as we passed that. Did get best view ever of Ben Vorlich and Stuc a' Chroin though on way back home, Stuc I'll be back to bag you yet (only hill I refused last year as conditions were too bad).
Next week, dunno where yet as got a ruby wedding on saturday, will try and squeeze in something on the sunday. Have already decided to do An Stuc etc with Lewis and Jimmy in a fortnight so hoping conditions will be good for some photos!
