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Date. 25th October 2009
Completed by. Dave, Julie and Wilson
Weather heavy rains all day poor visibility
Time. 11 1/4 hrs
Carn Bhac, Beinn Lutharn Mhor and An Socach
Starting from Inverey
With the clocks changing this weekend this walk was always going to be a tall order due to the lack of daylight. On top of that the conditions were very poor and once past the ruins of Altanmour lodge the conditions were very boggy and soon made the legs very heavy and reluctant to work.
Once past the lodge ruins we basically made a bee line for Carn Bhac hugging the north west slopes of Carn Creagach (894) due to the conditions the navigating was a nightmare and I was always getting pulled of my route at one stage I was nearly ½ k of line, so after that it was a case of checking every 10 mins or so. Back on coarse we were now making decent progress in the heavy rain and mist. Final pushes up the final 100 feet and we are on the summit with the cairn shelter in the distance a much welcome sight.
We re-fuel, get out the map and compass and get organised and now we are back on our way, its now 12.30pm and am still hopeful we can complete the round of 3 munros.
We head round the north side of Coire Bhearnaist and then north towards Beinn Lutharn Mhor. A lot of time was getting lost due to the navigating and was now starting to look doubtful if we would manage all hills on our day’s circuit.
Eventually we reach the boulder field/scree about 150 feet short of the summit. Now that was hard going trying to make our way through that in the wet and slippy conditions, but soon we are there we summit on the north east end where we found a wee wee cairn “ I hope this is not the cairn” said the wife.
We head northwest now to the point marked 1045 on the o/s map. What do we find, NOTHING? Can we assume then that we reached the summit !!
At this stage I want to do An Socach but the wife says no. We carry on in a northeasterly direction for 1km or so it’s now past 3.30pm. The wife’s right with the clocks changing time is against us so we decide to drop into the glen between Beinn Lutharn Mhor and Beinn Lutharn Bheag we drop down into the steep glen keeping above the Allt Beinn Lutharn and soon pick up a faint stalkers path above the burn and make our way down the glen.
Well before the fork in the burn way in the distance I see the sparse pine trees surrounding the Altanour lodge, the rains have subsided and the views are good lower down in the glen, but it has now gone 4.30pm and the dark is looming.
Eventually we reach the lodge 5.25 and its dark still 8k to go……..head torches on and soon we are marching. Took us 1hhr 50 mins in the dark from the Altanmour ruin to the car park.
Another long day with new experiences