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I had originally planned to head for Glenshee this weekend to break my duck on that side of the country but after a Saturday night text from Mick, we were off to Beinn a'Bheither to tackle it's two summits. They had looked quite imposing from The Mammores last weekend and with a promising forecast, we had high hopes of a similar day out to what we had got on Binnein Mor and Na Gruagaichean.
Time was an issue so instead of following the route posted on here, we chose the route Andrew Doggett took with the "monsters" as it looked a bit shorter and didn't involve a steep climb through the heather. We were parked up and ready to go just before nine and although there was a slight chill in the air, the clouds were doing a vanishing act with blue skies appearing overhead.
The well made path climbs gradually until you get into the forest where it does get a bit steeper but as it passes many small streams, there's plenty to take your mind off the ascent. As we passed into an open section, we took the chance to admire the view behind us as the sun shone on Loch Linnhe.
The well constructed path continues until you clear the forest and after that it starts to become a bit boggy but nothing too bad (certainly not comparable to Bern Lui) and it's still climbing gradually. By now we were at the bottom of the steep climb up the bealach with both cloud covered summits towering over us. It was just shy of 180m to the 757m bealach and in what felt like no time at all, we were up and admiring the view back the way we had came as well as the view towards Glen Etive.
Off we went up to the summit of Sgorr Dhonuill and the cloud covering the summit was showing signs of threatening to move and this had us making good progress up to the top.
We reached the point where the path narrows above a big drop but the cloud had thickened and we were spared the view down. 2hrs 20 minutes after leaving the car we were at the summit with no views in any direction. The sun shone through the cloud at one point raising our hopes but it was short lived and the cloud enveloped us once again.
There was nothing for it but to crack on and as we lost height the cloud vanished which meant we could see the path ahead, into Glen Etive and also past the summit of Sgorr Dhonuill.
We were back at the bealach in no time and after pausing to once again to enjoy the view towards our ascent route, we also noticed that the summit we had left was now bathing in the suns rays and our next target, Sgorr Dhearg, was covered in cloud.
I was struggling a bit on this ascent and it was a relief to make the top, even if we couldn't see very much. The view across to Sgorr Dhonuill was opening up but Ballachulish still hid behind the cloud. After only meeting two people all day, suddenly the summit became a busy place as a couple of groups appeared and we lingered here in the hope of the cloud completely disappearing.
It wasn't opening up the way we hoped so after a shot of Sgorr Dhonuill, we headed off down the ridge still following Andrew's route. It was an enjoyable walk and we were treated to a great view of The Mammores, Loch Leven, The Pap of Glencoe, the Aonach Eagach and Bidean Nam Bian. We also had a look back at where we had came from and my lens could just about fit in Sgorr Bhan, Sgorr Dhearg & Sgorr Dhonuill.
We had doddled a fair bit and stopped to take lots of pictures so now we decided to get moving back to the car as time was marching on. We were following the path when a newly constructed fence appeared to block our route and we stopped to have a think about what to do. We decided to descend down towards the forest whilst staying on the same side of the fence but after dropping down 50 meters or so, the fence turned left and went back the way we had came so there was nothing for it but to climb over.
Dead trees littered the ground and large holes hidden by grass made the going difficult. Mick took a tumble a few times and it was slow going but we spied the road through the tress so made a beeline for it. We followed a small stream down through some pine trees and after had Mick had tumbled once more
the salvation of the track was a very welcome moment. The simplest way back was to join up with the path we used on the ascent and withing twenty minutes, were were back at the car.
It took us 6hrs 15 minutes but that was down to stopping frequently to take pictures and sitting at the top of Sgorr Dhearg for at least half an hour. Despite the cloudy summits it was an enjoyable day out and I must have put some effort in as I was knackered when I got home