Rannoch Corbetts

[weaselmaster]

As Allison was still suffering from a cold - well more blocked sinuses now - I decided to have some pity and give us an easy week. I had been suffering from the cold myself during the week and wasn't feeling at my freshest, so not haring over to the west coast for another backpacking weekend was probably sensible. Oh and the weather was definitely going to be wetter in the west too.

So I picked a measly three Corbetts to tackle around Loch Rannoch - just one a day. And some Simms, obviously. Oh, and a couple of those Munro thingies and a Munro Top. Like I say, an easy weekend. Pleased to find our usual spot available on the roadside past Kinloch Rannoch on Thursday night and settled down for a quiet night. The luxury of car-camping! It's been a wee while.

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I'd selected the shortest walk, up Beinn a'Chuallaich, for the Friday, which was supposed to be the worst weather-wise and I could also help easy Allison back into the outdoors. We parked in the main square in Kinloch Rannoch and used the track we'd taken last time, diverging once we'd climbed a bit over to the first Simm of Meall Dubh, which involved following a stone wall over fairly dry heather. We could see the mist down over the Ben Alder hills just a little to the west, and some rain sweeping towards us, but we managed to stay dry all day, or at least til we got off the hill. Then we continued along the wall to the next Simm of Carn Fiaclach before heading over to the Corbett summit. The wind was strong and chill - we crouched behind the cairn for an early bite to eat.

Schiehallion
P7050057 by Al, on Flickr

P7050059 by Al, on Flickr

P7050060 by Al, on Flickr

Carn Fiaclach
P7050061 by Al, on Flickr

Summit Chuallaich
P7050062 by Al, on Flickr

We followed a faint path towards Meall nan Eun, heading for the final Simm of Meall na Moine. I had the WH route for this hill, which starts from the east, on my GPS and I thought it might be better to follow it down to the B847 rather than have to re-ascend Beinn a'Chuallaich and head into the wind. This proved to be a fine enough route, a little boggy/overgrown with ferns in places, but brought us nicely to the road, past an old shepherd's hut. I hadn't looked at where the WH route brought you back to, kinda thinking it would loop to Kinloch Rannoch - but no - we had another 3 miles to walk back to the car. The roads were quiet and we could enjoy the winldflowers along the edges of the fields and assorted insect life. We added 5km onto my original route by taking the diversion. As we got to the car the rain started to fall, though not heavily. In no particular hurry we drove along towards Rannoch Station, at one point meeting a line of 4 stick lorries coming the other way. Glad I wasn't driving a maggot-van.

P7050065 by Al, on Flickr

P7050066 by Al, on Flickr

P7050067 by Al, on Flickr

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We parked at the start of tomorrow's walk and pitched the tent by the old road, across a wooden gate from the parking area. Fine as long as you have robust tent pegs . Time for a cooked meal (Tofu Thai Red Curry) and an early night. Quite windy with intermittent rain overnight, but a reasonable looking Saturday morning. Today's plan was to re-visit a route we'd done before - the Corbett of Beinn Pharlagain (or really Meall na Meoig, which is the proper summit) then to continue on to Sgor Ghaibre, the Top of Sgor Choinnich and back round over Carn Dearg. Last time was in proper winter conditions, today would be more gentle. We were both feeling a bit tired, despite a moderate ammount of sleep the night before, and progress wasn't especially fast. The Corbett was climbed, we paused for lunch before heading up the 300m to Sgor Ghaibre, where we met an Oriental gentleman who was heading for the Corbett having come up the valley between Ghaibre and Dearg. He was over half way through his Corbetts, having completed his Munros, and had done all his ascents in a single day - he reckoned that some of the far west Corbetts might be difficult to do without recourse to a bothy or tent, but he was going to try!

Pharlagain
P7060068 by Al, on Flickr

Loch Rannoch
P7060069 by Al, on Flickr

Meall na Meoig
P7060071 by Al, on Flickr

Sgor Ghaibre
P7060072 by Al, on Flickr

Summit Ghaibre - I thought our first Munro of the year- but actually the fourth
P7060073 by Al, on Flickr


We descended from the Munro - on a path!!- and climbed the Top - 29 left now. Across to Carn Dearg then a longish trek down the spine of that hill and back onto the track. Only 1400m ascent to grab a Corbett, 2 Munros and a Munro Top
We re-pitched the tent where we'd been the night before - I was unhappy about leaving it pitched so close to what is a quite busy road. We had a couple of maggot-vans for company tonight, also the electricity pylon overhead was making a science-fiction-y buzzy noise - Allison claimed the next morning it had fried her brain during the night.

P7060074 by Al, on Flickr

Sgor Choinnich
P7060075 by Al, on Flickr

Carn Dearg
P7060076 by Al, on Flickr

Stats are 3km short as I forgot to start it - at the start
P7060077 by Al, on Flickr

aonaichsim.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

For Sunday's easy walk we had the Corbett of Stob an Aoniach Mhoir - the only Corbett WH basically demands you take a mountain bike for, since it's a long, long trek - about 12km - on a tarmac road. Well we weren't going to do that. We got parked by the gate of the estate and fought our way through the undergrowth blocking the pedestrian entrance. The long and winding road began - the air busy with flutter-byes and moffs steering their flimsy bodies through the air. Again lost of wildflowers in the grass, insects buzzing and humming. Above us a lapwing scrotched and swooped. We entertained ourselves by thinking of songs with certain words in the title, then later, set about compiling a list of 1000 favourite singles you'd like to hear. Oh, the miles just zoomed by We left the road at the cairn and headed up to the top of the hill. Good views across to the Ben Alder hills. We continued down the back of our mountain, making for the two Simms there, giving some variation underfoot from the hard track.

Yesterday's hills - Pharlagain to Choinnich
P7070078 by Al, on Flickr

P7070079 by Al, on Flickr

Loch Ericht
P7070081 by Al, on Flickr

Aonaich Mhoir from the first Simm
P7070082 by Al, on Flickr

After we re-joined the track we were passed by a trio of mountain bikers, clearly having followed WH's mandate. Well they got down faster than us, but seemed to be having some difficulty attaching their bikes to the bike rack on their car when we drove away. Stopped off in Glasgow for a vegan chippie at Kent Fish & Chip shop too - the things you can do after walking 80km in a weekend

P7070084 by Al, on Flickr

[gammy leg walker]

As Allison was still suffering from a cold - well more blocked sinuses now - I decided to have some pity and give us an easy week. I had been suffering from the cold myself during the week and wasn't feeling at my freshest,

If nothing else your all heart

[Alteknacker]

Maximum speed: 44.4 kph!!! That MUST be a record.?!?