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Date. Saturday 5th April 2010
Completed by. Dave, Julie and Wilson
Weather. Clear with mainly blue skies deep snow high up.
Hills. Munro’s x 4
Corbetts’s x 3
Friday.....Beinn Udlaidh and Beinn Bhreac-Liath....... time 4hrs 40mins Ascent 935m distance 11.4km
Saturday.....Ben Cruachan......time 4hrs 30mins Ascent 910m distance 9.5km
Sunday.....Stob Diamh, Beinn Chochuill and Beinn Eunich
Beinn Bhuiridh........time 12hrs Ascent 2030m distance 19.5km
This was our first wild camping trip. The plan was to arrive early on Friday and catch the 2 Corbett’s to the east of the Cruachan range Beinn Udlaidh and Beinn Bhreac-Liath. ( this was achieved ) then to have a high camp at the Bealach just before Ben Cruachan then try to complete all 4 Munros and 1 Corbett the next day……
Never arrived at the Cruachan reservoir until near 6pm on Friday evening (raining) so we decided to camp at the south end and head for Ben Cruachan horseshoe in the morning.
The day previous the weather was glorious when we did the Corbett’s. We had packed ice axes and crampons but we found no need for them. So when we woke on Saturday morning we decided to leave axes and crampons in the tent (mistake) and head for the horseshoe.
Soon enough we had passed the end of the reservoir and were making good progress up Coire Dearg. On reaching the Bealach we realised we should have taken our winter gear. We carried onto approx 900m and realised there was a couple behind us through the thick mist, they turned back ( we later realise they never took there gear either ) any how we carried on and soon we were on the summit with no views what so ever.
We carried on the ridge for about 20/30 metres more. But the visibility and lack of gear we soon turned back and decided to get down and head for camp. As we approached the Cruachan loch we saw the couple that turned back dismanteling there tent, they had pitched at the North end of the Loch on the same day as ourselves.
Back to camp, map out Quick plan and we decide to head east to the junction at A85/B8077 at the head of Lochawe NN132/286 and set up camp for Saturday late afternoon. We even find a couple of hours to nip back to the village for supper and a few pints of McEwans.
THE PLAN….ALTERNATIVE HORSESHOE FOR 3 MENTALIST’S
Starting from.....NN132/286 just off A85
8am and our first morning steps are taken, we scramble our way up the steep slopes to make for the ridge that leads to Monadh Drisaig from there we will be able to head up the East Ridge of Beinn Bhuiridh skimming the Corries to our right and staying well back from the corniced areas at the top of the corie wall. We soon arrive on the east top and then make our way along to the true summit on the west.
This is where we met our only group for the day, 3 guys who came up the Corbett from the west and were heading round the horseshoe anti-clockwise.
Visibility at this stage was still fairly poor, but by the time we made our way down the steep north side of Beinn Bhuiridh heading for Stob Garbh the sun came out and stayed out for most of the day… It was good to see Ben Cruachan at last.
Up down and up again and we were soon on top of our first Munro of the day Stob Diamh.I was sure this was going to be a day to remember,and looking back on that super walk all the way to Beinn Bhuiridh only confirmed our thoughts
From here we would be treading virgin snow on our descent to Sron a Isean. This was a splendid part of the walk good views back on Stob Garbh then slightly farther on great views along the Cruachan ridge.
Ideal route would have been to head for Lairig Noe, but this looked very steep, so we headed west of Lairig Noe down a shallow but steep gully and made for a bridge at one of the water tunnels so we could ascend Beinn a Chochuill.
This was a bit of a killer on the legs with a drop of 550m and then a climb of 550m to reach the summit of Beinn a Chochuill. At this stage of the day we both knew it would be a tall order, and not to be attempted by the faint hearted. If we could only make it up there, we were sure Beinn Eunaich would be with’n our grasp.
After much huffing and puffing we were greeted with this little Christmas cracker…
![Christmas surprise on Beinn a chochuill summit (1).JPG]()
- if you look close enough you can see my face......
From here we headed East along another super ridge walk before the final steep zig zagged climb up to Beinn Eunaich’s summit. Still weather was super and was probably at its peak in the late afternoon. Spent a we bit of time just savouring the views from here, and trying to make sense on what we had just achieved.
We then headed down the long gentle south ridge heading just short of Stub Maol then cut down on to the 4 x 4 track before crossing 2 bridges heading for a working quarry. Then on to another track and back up to the car to end an epic day.
