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8 months ago myself & Jonny616 bailed on the then Fisherfield 6 since then we have been planning an other attack on that area and a few other WH members were also hoping to walk the "last great wilderness" Bod & Val,Dawnfoth,Quoman,Meatball & Rottiewalker made up the motley crew,in the weeks leading up we had been nervously watching the weather & conditions hoping for a nice weather window for the weekend,however as we are all aware winter just does not want to leave so now we had to execute Plan B (I thought they were a pop group) so after tons of chat back & forth on FB it came down to Fisherfield or Culra bothy with Val giving me the pressure of picking where my heart said Fisherfield but the head was saying Culra so Culra it was.
You maybe wondering why the TR heading says "an unworthy scribe" well that's easy the time,distance & accent are all mine not that of the other 7 nutters who after we all dropped off Beinn Elbhinn to pick up the stalkers path that links Dalwhinnie to Corrour carried on & climbed Ben Alder & Beinn Bheoil giving them a staggering 2400 metres of accent & near 60k of walking over the Fri/Sat/Sun,or even more staggering if you are Meatball who climbed Beinn a"Chlachair,Geal Charn & Creag Pitridh on the Fri to give him near 85k & 3200 accent over the 3 days.
ETA for most of us was 3.30pm at Dalwhinnie where some would bike in & the purists would enjoy"the long walk in"
- Quoman & Dawnfoth getting ready.
- Going light is not an option
Quoman & Rottiewalker were the bikers,me Jonny 616 Bod Val Dawnfoth would walk & Meatball would meet us en-route to Culra not much I can say about the 15k walk to Culra apart from "ouch" 10 cans of lager firewood walking boots (walked in with trainers) enough food to feed an army made for an interesting three & a half hours Culra sure was a welcome site where soon we were all unpacked food was cooked & beer,cider & whisky flowed
- Quoman,Rottiewalker,Bod & Val
- Jonny616,Meatball & the rest
a fairly quiet night was had with only small amounts of lager,beer,cider,whisky being consumed all in preparation for the next days activities.
8 am sharpish & we were all suited & booted for the off
- Dawnfoth,Quoman,Rottiewalker,Jonny616
- Yours truly & crew with "bear" the ladyboy dug
Now there"s not a lot I can say about the walk to Carn Dearg at 1034 meters apart from UP but it does give you some grand views.
- Loch Pattack
- Loch Ericht
- Culra bothy far below
- Eh,up
and in just a shade over one & a half hours the summit was reached.
- With views now there"s a surprise
.Now it does state that the walk to Geal Charn has some wonderful views & for what its worth we managed to get some fine views down to Loch Coire Cheap & Loch an Sgor
- Loch an Sgor
- Loch Coire Cheap
however for some reason our eyes had been drawn to the interesting climb ahead it was fairly steep with a fine if somewhat unstable hanging cornice on the r/h/s which we all agreed looked like it could go at any time
- Fairly steep climb & that cornice
thankfully some people had been on this route the day before & cut some fine steps into the snow which eased the climb no end but even so we all were happy to get past safely,it also states the summit cairn can be a challenge to locate even in clear weather on the wide plateau and by this time the weather had closed in with a heavy clag,some snow flurries & biting wind all adding to the fun,however with map compass & at least 5/6 gps units in know time the summit was reached.
- Geal Charn summit & service back to normal
.
From here over Aonach Beag & Beinn Elbinn I took two pictures one on both summits the weather was now fairly dire wet & windy with no views.
- Aonach Beag summit more of the same
- Beinn Elbhinn summit sayin nowt
all that was left now was a re trace of our outward route down to the bealach & then find a route down into the glen floor this was eased somewhat with 1 or 2 fine snow shute"s that made for some great bum slides.
All day the talk had been 4 or 6 munro"s now it was time to make a decision a 6k walk back to Culra or follow Rockhoppers route 600 meters straight up onto Ben Alder and then over to Beinn Bheoil & back to Culra adding 1200 accent,10k & 4/5 hrs more walking,for me it was a easy choice as by this time the gammy knee & ankle were done for again,I can walk & have one long day know bother but with the 15k walk in on Fri 18k on Sat & 15k walk out on Sun I just cant cut it anymore
so this is where I wimped out bade goodbye to my companions & headed back to Culra to rest up for the walk out on Sun,I think 1 or 2 will post some pictures from the rest of there walk I can now only comment on what had already been an epic trip for me.
So 6k back to Culra at a steady pace was done in just under one & a half hours where I cleaned & packed my gear had some food & beer and waited for the crew to return this they duly did around 4/5 hrs later around 9.30 pm all elated and all a wee shade frazzled after their epic trip,well done to every feckin one of you all that was left now was food for the troops then beer,lager,wine,whisky,vodka,mocha choca latte,& some electrolites I did hope to have some pictures of the Sat bothy night but my camera was a wee bit damp maybe some others will have pictures to add.
Oooooft Sunday morning not so bright and early but time to ready ourselves for the walk/bike back to Dalwhinnie
- Culra bothy & morning Bod
- Culra bothy morning Bod & Val
- My bed for the last 2 nights
- Packing to go home
- Meatball heads for home
- Quoman with his antler
- A last look back to Culra
So there"s my TR it would not have been possible without Jonny 616 one of my best friends,Dawnfoth one of the sweetest people I have ever met,Rottiewalker & Bear(the dug) stonking fella & his great companion,Quoman one of the funniest people you will ever meet,Bod an absolute gentle giant,Val what a personality always laughing,Meatball first time we have met but has given me some great help with my last injury thanks very much & one last thing
- Ben Alder
I"ll be back.