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Date. Saturday 28th January 2012
Completed by. Dave Wilson and Jake
Weather. Clear and crisp.
Time. 8hrs 30min
Distance. 26.5 km
Ascent. 1450 m
Hills.
Munro’s x 2
Corbett’s x 0
Grahams x 0
An Socach
And
Beinn Lutharn Mhor
Starting from.
Baddoch
This was to be a boy’s only day trip. What I mean by that is Julie my main walking partner and wife could not make it to day. She had more important things on her agenda than walking the hills… she was off getting the old eyebrows sorted (shaped and dyed) Awww that’s wimmin for yea ehhh.
So for one day only it was the two dogs and I. Boys only.
Its been a while since our last Munro, we have been concentrating on Corbetts lately, and originally this weekend was to be no different, but after getting good feedback on the weather forecast for Saturday I changed the plans.
An Socach had become a bit of a bogie for us, come to think of it so had Beinn Lutharn Mhor! Back in October 2009 we had tried to do Carn Bhac, Beinn Lutharn Mhor and An Socach from Invery. It was a poor day, and I do remember having a few problems navigating at times. On that day I was not sure if we had really reached the Summit of Beinn Lutharn Mhor as we could not find the Cairn, I mentioned this on the TR I typed up on WH, and to make matters worse still we had run out of time to even make an attempt on An Socach.
Doogz kindly got back in touch with me to confirm my worst nightmare. He said there was a rather large cairn on the summit.
Grrrrr
So the plan today was to rectify our past failings. I decided on attacking the hills from Baddoch. It would be a big day in winter, but the forecast was in our favour. And if I could drag my scrawny body out of bed early enough I hoped we could be on top of Sgor Mhor at sunrise. Thankfully today everything did go to plan.
From Sgor Mor it was still a fair hike to the summit of An Socach along a broad “S” shaped ridge. But, on a day like this it was not a problem, weather and views were amazing.
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- sgor mor 1
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- sgor mor 2
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- sgor mor 3
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- An Socach summit
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- and again just incase.
From An Socach we would see the steep NE shoulder of Beinn Lutharn Mhor with its layer of compact snow all the way up to the shoulder. To ascend this would need the use of the crampons.
Once we dropped down to the Allt Beinn Lutharn the dogs and I took a well-earned rest and re fuelled before starting to climb the steep NE shoulder that would eventually lead us to the Beinn Lutharn Mhor summit. This time we really had reached the summit of that I’m sure.
Met our only person of the day as we descended Beinn Lutharn Mhor, a guy doing a bit of ski touring. He had done the Cairnwell, Cairn Asoda and was on his way to Beinn Lutharn Mhor when we met, 5 more minutes I said 10 max and you will be on the summit, we then parted company. Round about Mam Nan Carn I look back to see the guy skiing down the south slopes at speed, but in a controlled fashion, really was a joy to watch.
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- NE shoulder
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- looking back to An Socach
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- An Socach
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- got yi this time Yeahh.
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- the evidence (Jake summits)
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- Loch nan Eun Pano
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- Loch nan Eun
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- and again
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- Jake explores
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- Wilson ( The Bald Beardie ) poor thing !
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- Jake ( the youngster )
I had originally planned to climb Beinn Lutharn Beag but I now decided against this due to the extra effort needed; instead I contoured around the south and enjoyed the views of the frozen Loch Nan Eun. From the Lochan I follow its outlet out until I come to the 4x4 track. At this stage I was pretty tired, the terrain from the Lochan until I reached the track was tough going, I was very glad to reach the track for the final outward journey.
