May Day on Beinn a'Chochuill and Beinn Eunaich.

[martin.h]

Holidays are great, time to relax, time to unwind and time to get out and do the things we enjoy, the only thing that puts the brakes on this is the weather, we missed Sunday-rain, the rain is bucketing down today-Tuesday but Bank Holiday Monday didn't turn out too bad, the winds were predicted to be strongish but otherwise fine so we decided to get out and do something and these two are described on W.H. as being straightforward so are ideal for a day like today.
Up early, overcast but dry, great. Breakfast and off, clouds breaking and lifting off the summits, even better.
We managed to get one of the very limited parking spots by the bridge on the B8077, lucky because during the time I spent getting the car tucked in off the road another three cars turned up, the mountains are going to be busy today.

We set off down the track towards Castles Farm and could see the track ahead taking us towards the mountains.

Looking towards Ben Cruachan from the initial stages of the track

Our first target Beinn a'Chochuill in the middle.

Looking back towards the start of the walk the big fir tree marking where the cars parked.

Further on, the route up Beinn a'Chochuill looks a lot less steep than from a distance and once the climb starts you soon gain height, its a bit soggy in places and there's no path as such but as height is gained traces of a path are found and this improves the higher you get and the views become well worth the effort.

Looking up the Allt Mhoille

Ben Cruachan beginning to dominate.

Cruachan again just as the initial climb begins to level out.

As the ridge is gained the path much improves, head left towards a rocky tor and once there you get the first proper view of the summit of Beinn a'Chochuill with a nice ridge leading towards it.
At the summit Ben Cruachan is the view that dominates, I can see why its called "the mighty Ben Cruachan" its like a range of mountains in itself, you can see the Glen Etive hills, the Black Mount some of the Glencoe Mountains.

Denise on Beinn a'Chochuill

The view over to our next objective.

Looking west.

Ben Cruachan from the first summit.

Towards Glen Etive.

The next objective over Denise's right shoulder.

After taking all this in the wind reminded us that we should crack on and continue our walk so we retraced our steps back towards the bealach Lairig lanachan, we were lucky and could see the route ahead, the climb up Beinn Eunaich looked quite imposing and once in the bealach the view up the opposite slope looked a bit like looking up Stob Binnein from Bealach Eadar da-Bheinn, steep, but in reality, not bad at all and we were soon up.
Again the views are brilliant, 360 deg of pure fantastic-ness, again, Ben Cruachan dominated as did the Black mount munros, over to Glen Coe and also Ben Lui, Ben More and Lawers.

Looking from the summit of Beinn Eunaich to Beinn a'Chochuill and Ben Cruachan

Denise on the summit of Beinn Eunaich looking east behind.

Looking East.

Towards the Blackmount.

Denise, Cruachan and Beinn a'Chochuill

Giant Ben Cruachan.

Could that be Buchaille Etive Mor???????

Zoomed, can anybody tell me if this IS the big bookil ???

We just felt honoured that this Bank Holiday Monday turned out to be just right and gifted us such views, the snow adding to the effect, dark and light colours, grey and white clouds, shame about the wind but perfection is rare in the mountains, we were happy with our day out, very happy.

The decent from Beinn Eunaich is steady to start with down a grassy ridge with a path, you lose height fairly quickly, Ben Cruachan beginning to show its softer side and Kilchurn Castle showing its defensive position.

Kilchurn Castle.

Sedate Cruachan.

and again.

and again, Ben Cruachan has become much higher on our "to do" list its a fantastic looking mountain.

Eventually, as you get lower down, the route off the mountain becomes very steep so care is needed but this not too long and soon arrives back on the good Cruachan hydro track up from Castles Farm and from here its a steady 20 minute walk back to the car.

A great day out, we took advantage of a good weather window lets hope we get another one this week, fingers crossed.

[Beaner001]

Some nice pics there guys, Cruachan is a stunning mountain, you'll enjoy it

[Silverhill]

You got a mixed bag weather wise, but at least for this walk it was good. I did Ben Cruachan a day before I did these hills. And looking at it from Beinn a’ Chochuill I couldn’t believe I had actually come down that pointy ridge . It is a mighty hill, enjoy!