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Unfinished Business -Beinn nan Oighreag (and Meall Ghaordie)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLqtrlr8C2w&context=C35d43ecADOEgsToPDskJPg72bywFFvSfApUFpms_r[/youtube]
A couple of months ago we headed up these hills hoping to bag a Corbett and a munro, however time was not on our side and we did not make the summit of the Corbett.
So here I was a morning spare and a Corbett to bag. The weather report was great – sunshine above the inversion with the top of the cloud being between 500-900 metres. The height of Beinn nan Oighreag was 909m so I was confident of getting spectacular views. I was also hoping for a nice sunrise as I had been up very early and left the car in Glen Lochy by 6.30 am in the dark. There was a little fog but it was hard to tell how much in the dark.
As I reached the sheilings dawn was well underway and it was not looking good – no pink sunrises or pretty pictures. There was a layer of fog in Glen Lochay but also a layer of cloud which started about 650m. I had my doubts as to whether the Corbett summit would puncture this.
- whiteout and no sign of blue skies!
I trudged up and reach the summit ridge where thing looked promising. A few pockets of blue skie were coming into view not too far above my head as the cloud whisped past. At this point I was hoping that the summit was still a few hundred metres up as that would definetly puncture the cloud. However it was not to be and the summit was in the cloud. Reached there at 9ish. I hung around hoping for the cloud to drop however it didn’t and I set back down.
As I descended out of the cloud things were looking brighter and more bright spots appearing so I made the decision to traverse round to Meall Ghaordies SE ridge and hopefully hit the tourist path.
- promising signs on way down
It was a bit of a trudge put I was eventually on the tracks on the snow made by the weekend walkers. On reaching the top of the Munro there was still cloud whisping over the top and I was disappointed. However 5 mins later the views opened up and I got some great footage including some brocken spectres. Great feeling. I hung around for about 45mins.
- finally above the cloud looking south toward Ben Vorlich
- summit pic
On the way down I met one party of three heading for the summit., By the time they got there the cloud was lifting off all surrounding summits…… Was back at car for 13.30.
- west down glen lochay
- tarmigan