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Tramping on Beinn a' Ghlo

Tramping on Beinn a' Ghlo


Postby Bean » Sat Jul 11, 2015 4:38 pm

Route description: Beinn a' Ghlò

Munros included on this walk: Bràigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain, Càrn Liath (Beinn a' Ghlò), Càrn nan Gabhar

Date walked: 18/06/2015

Time taken: 8 hours

Distance: 22 km

Ascent: 1333m

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Alistair and I are getting into our Munro's, currently at 27, by the end of this week (our June holiday) we at least hope to have done over 30. Before we got our chart this year, I would have sworn I had done more than this, I feel like we are always in the hills, but these things have a way of deceiving you.
We decided on Beinn a' Ghlo as our big day. A few seasoned hill walkers having breakfast at the B&B that morming confirmed this was a good one. According to the forecast it was right on the edge of potential good weather zone, so we thought we would risk it.

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The route


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Off we go.......


From the carpark a nice easy road leads up the glen. As we walked the lapwings kept us company, their distinctive calls ever present and flying boldly to distract us from their young.

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Lapwing in flight


Along the path which seemed to be teeming with life we also happened across a family of Wheatears, three young, and the parents (who seemed to be of similar size!) working hard to ensure they were of more interest than their fluffy bundles.

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A young wheatear........not quite sure who we are


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An adult Wheatear standing guard


At an old shed we left the dirt track and continued through a field and open heathland towards Carn Liath which stood before us, the wide scar of the path very visible.

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The path up to Carn Liath - doesn't look too bad?


The hike up Carn Liath was a lot longer than it looked from the bottom, taking a good hour and a half as the book suggested. It felt like the up hill 'tramp' was never going to end and I was beginning to regret ever starting out, especially after three Munros the day before.

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Hard work


This is definitely the worst part of the walk, once up there it was fantastic!

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The first summit - finally


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Alistair at the top of Carn Liath


From the top we could see the long ridge winding out across to the summit of Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain.

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Looking out at our way over the ridge


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Zig zags of the ridge seen well here


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Coming up on the other side


From the top of Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain.

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A good view of the Carn nan Gabhar in the distance


The path lead along and down towards a col connecting the last summit of the day.

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Walking from the second summit to the col


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Last of the winter snow bank to cross before descending down into the col, we cut out steps to make it easier.


After a rest in the col we prepared ourselves for another burst of energy to climb up and reach the last and highest summit - Carn nan Gabhar. It was a rocky place and hard going underfoot but well worth it for the views. It would be easy to miss the summit up here in cloud as you come to a large cairn, then a trig point neither of which is the summit, that is a further on.

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Nice view from the remains of the ancient summit of Carn nan Gabhar.


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Sitting on the rocks admiring the view from the summit plateau of Carn nan Gabhar


From here we walked directly back and followed the line of the ridge right to the end. Another way down would be back down to the col, but we decided that this would be a more interesting way off. I was a bit worried about what the down path would be like, as we had seen it from the earlier Munros and it looked very wide but also steep. I felt nervous as we nearer the end of the ridge but at this point we came across the obvious path which was not too steep and easy even for me.

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View down the ridge


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Heading off down the ridge.....


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The path down looking less scary now


After a long and great day up high we were able to look back impressed at where we had just descended from. The long walk out was initially on a rough track which then finally joined the original landrover track.

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Walking out


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It was a perfect evening, the sun was warm and the evening light beautiful as we walked out of the glen. As before there was lots of other life out enjoying it too.

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Sheep enjoying the evening


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A well camouflaged sky lark


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Looking back down the path towards stormy skies, from the safety of the warm evening sun
Bean
Wanderer
 
Posts: 53
Munros:69   Corbetts:9
Fionas:8   Donalds:2
Sub 2000:9   Hewitts:7
Wainwrights:10   
Joined: May 31, 2015

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