Beinn Swear Word

[pigeon]

Beinn Sgulaird or as the local sherperds call it"The Bastard"???????????Why is it known as this?Maybe the rest of the gang knew why because it was a slighty reduced crew of me Charlie and Diane who set off to tackle the bastard (who both had the cold as did Ian and Kev hence their absence)but anyways we were parked up and on the go for about 0845 .The bastard word was used to good effect as we clambered up the first climb of the day,a steep grassy climb up to the East side of the 488m spot.

Loch Creran from just above Druimavuich

Diane takes a well earned breather

In fairness though this was the toughest partof the day for us ,once we were up here and had a breather the next climb up to the first top at 863 was very nice indeed,snowline was reached at about 800m where two fresh sets of footprints appeared and were duly followed for the rest of the day

Loch Etive

Great views at the first top down Loch Creran and over to Beinn a Bhiether and also a partial spectre before we carefully followed the footprints down and then up again to the next top at 848m ,Meall Garbh.

Beinn Sgulaird almost peeks out

863m top

partial spectre

steep rocky descent

Chaz

Beinn a Bhiether hills

Here we could make out Sgulairds summit as it broke out the clouds briefly along with Starav and Cruachan,unfortunatly for us the cloud was just sitting at about the 900m mark so when we reached Sgulairds summit after 3 and a half hours the views were pretty limited.Still we had really enjoyed the hike so far and Diane was well chuffed to reach her 80th Munro,four guys from Perth arrived at the summit and took our pic before we decided that no way Jose were we re-tracing our steps back over the tops so a plan to find a way down north west ish from the was hatched.

Munro number 80 for Di

Luckily the trusty footprints we had followed headed that way too so off we went carefully picking our way down through the crags before crossing a frozen waterfall and then heading straight down the grassy slopes to an old sheep pen where a rough path takes you to just below Taraphocain.

some icy sections on the way doon

Back along the road to the car in a touch over 6 hours,a great day,the weather was kind,not a lot of wind,just a fresh dusting of snow higher up,any boggy parts were just frozen enough to make easy walking and no rain Who says this hills a Bastard?

on the track back with Beinn Fhionnlaidh to the left

[dawnfoth]

Hi Pigeon - looks like you guys had a good day - the weather didn't look too bad at all - the bloody cloud always seems to drift over when the summit is reached - glad to see it's not only me this happens to! Some nice views there though.

[pigeon]

Cheers dawn,only thing missing from the day was a good summit view,still can't have it all eh

[Ian Bayne]

Looks like you had a good DRY day .One thing though I would have called it B*****d How I hate tops looks like me and Kev will have to do that later on Allright for the next adventure

[Huck Finn]

As always Dave, good report and great photos, the rest of the gang really missed a good one, I think you summed it up on the way back to the car "if the top had been cloud free, it would have made our top ten of hills"

[skuk007]

Nice report Pigeon.

That descent off the summit looks quite craggy on the map, glad you made it ok.
Well done Diane for reaching the 80th

[Huck Finn]

Some of my photos from the walk -

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=28237

[Johnny Corbett]

Ah a double post. See my comments on Huck Finns

[PeteR]

Another fine effort pigeon

I liked this hill when I did it, but it was a bit tougher than I expected, although I could think of other hills I'd launch that sort of expletive at long before Sgulaird Seeing it with snow on makes it look good too

[pigeon]

Looks like you had a good DRY day .One thing though I would have called it B*****d How I hate tops looks like me and Kev will have to do that later on Allright for the next adventure

A dry day is always a good day Ian you could climb this from the bottom of Glen Etive,i think

As always Dave, good report and great photos, the rest of the gang really missed a good one, I think you summed it up on the way back to the car "if the top had been cloud free, it would have made our top ten of hills"

Great pics again Huck

Nice report Pigeon.

That descent off the summit looks quite craggy on the map, glad you made it ok.
Well done Diane for reaching the 80th

It's not that bad skuk,a few of my guide books suggest this descent,much better than re climbing the tops me thinks

Ah a double post. See my comments on Huck Finns

cheers Johnny,that Huck takes a good pic likes

Another fine effort pigeon

I liked this hill when I did it, but it was a bit tougher than I expected, although I could think of other hills I'd launch that sort of expletive at long before Sgulaird Seeing it with snow on makes it look good too

Cheers pete,it's a tough single sure enough ,really enjoyed our day though

[rockhopper]

good stuff pigeon - certainly looked a bit steeper then from the Glen Etive side though - pity you didn't get a view from the top but sounds like it was enjoyable with some views as a consolation - cheers

[pigeon]

good stuff pigeon - certainly looked a bit steeper then from the Glen Etive side though - pity you didn't get a view from the top but sounds like it was enjoyable with some views as a consolation - cheers

Cheers RH,i remember your post on these,just had another look at it,our route was slighty easier