Beinn nan Aighenan, Glen Etive.

[quagga64]

Up at 5.20 and left the house at 6.20, drove the 108 miles to the start point which is 10 miles down the single track road down Glen Etive, arriving at 8.50. Had a chat with an English guy who was parked next to me in a large campervan before setting off at 9a.m. The roadsides were packed with parked cars and vans, not only was it a Saturday but Monday is also the May Day bank holiday so this was probably the reason as well as the descent weather, it was forecast to be dry and bright though not exactly sunny and the tempratures were pretty cold, in the single figures, there had even been a bit of ice on my windscreen when I left in the morning. This was another birthday walk, this time Williams 27th, have done walks on my own birthday and Dads (18th April) so far this year although poor William has spent his birthday languashing in Addiewell Prison where he has been on remand since the 5th of February. After a hunndred yard walk back along the road to the start point I set off down the track following the WH route crossing the River Etive bridge then detouring round the Coiletir cottage and across a very boggy path to the Allt Mheuran, crossing that I eventually picked up the path which runs all the way up the glen. Weather was fine and the views were lovely. After a long walk the path steepens as it heads up to the bealach between Ben Starav and Glas Bheinn Mhor which I climbed in 2013, in fact this was the last munro I had left to climb in this entire area and now leaves just the Ben Alder/Loch Ossian group to do South of The Great Glen. Apart from people heading up Ben Starav I had,nt seen anyone else until I crossed the bealach and descended down to the lowest point and began the ascent of the actual munro itself when it became pretty busy all of a sudden, met a single guy, then a group of 4 then 2 and several other parties of 2 and 4 during the ascent and descend of Beinn nan Aighenan. The ascent itself was good, lots of easy hands on scrambling with a nice path weaving in and out of the rocky terrain. Reached the summit at about 1 p.m. four hours after setting off, stayed on the top for 45 minutes chatting to a couple of English guys from London way who were up for the bank holiday weekend. Very calm with no wind and good all round views from the top. The walk back was just a matter of following my footsteps all the way back the way I,d came, met a woman who goes by the WH name of Cookachoo on the descent and spoke to her for about 15 minutes, she has done the Cape Wrath Way on her own which takes about 2 weeks and is setting off to walk the length of the Outer Hebrides on her own this year sleeping in a tent and in bothies ! Very brave. Read her report on the Cape Wrath way when I got back home at night. Got back to the car at 6p.m. so a walk time of 9 hours exactly. Should have got home by about 8.30 but as I got to the long downhill stretch of road from Rannoch Moor to Loch Tulla there was a massive tailback in both directions as the police had shut the road due to an accident between car and motorbike and we had to sit there for about an hour and a half, was,nt too bad as I ate some food from my piecebox despite having my new false teeth in and being in pain, spoke to the foreign family behind me and had a chat with the guy who owns the White Corries ski centre in Glen Coe, turns out he comes from Falkirk, sold up his house and bought the place a few years ago. Eventually got home at 10 p.m. put my old teeth in and had a good feed of chicken strips and salad washed down with a guiness and watched Match of the Day, Sixth munro of the year and number 212 in total complete. A nice round 70 left to go !

[cookachoo]

Hi quagga64

Thanks for the mention in your report above. Back from my Hebridean Way which was fantastic. I had some fantastic weather and met lots of great people. It was great to chat to you on the hill that day. Keep up the good work and enjoy all the hills you've got left to do. Might bump into you again.

Liz