Beinn a'Chleibh and Ben Lui

[dalmallywalker]

Beinn a' Chleibh and Ben Lui - Awesome day!

We didn't do our planned route, going up to the bealach between the two Bens as we avoided wet feet at the river crossing by walking back west along the road to the bridge and carrying on up Beinn a' chleibh by it's western ridge. It turned out to be a better way up as a group of walkers had been up about an hour before us and compacted a trail. That made walking in the deep snow a lot easier.
From the top of Beinn a' Chleibh Ben Lui looked so close and inviting that we decided to shoot up there too. So Crampons on and away we went. Shoot was the wrong word! It was very difficult nearing the top as the gradient increased along with very deep, leg sapping snow that now had no previous footsteps to take advantage of, but well worth it. The views were amazing. The detour had us behind schedule so we saw the sun setting on our way back down.
Going down was a lot easier, heel plunging in the deep snow all the way to the bealach and then down to the forest. Once in the forest it started getting dark, so head torches on and a beautiful walk through the heavily snow laden trees and the snow glistening in our head torch beams. We were able to cross the river at the railway line no bother as it was mostly frozen.
Back home in 15 minutes with a beer and a hot bath!

What a brilliant day, what a brilliant place to live!

[rockhopper]

some lovely photos there dalmally - looks like you had a great day for it

[Huck Finn]

Photo P1000379.JPG is stunning
We did this earlier in the year when their was now and really enjoyed it, not sure if i would manage in the snow though

[dalmallywalker]

Paying for it a bit today! Legs tired but well worth it.

[davgil]

Looks awesome, great summit pics too, they make it all worthwhile I think!

[mountain coward]

I'm very interested in your route to and up the west ridge as I was wanting to go up that way (I believe the walk up to the col between the 2 peaks is wet and difficult to find the route through the forest?). What was the route (if there was one) up through the forest to the west ridge like? Were there any bad bits (craggy, vertiginous, scary) on the way up to the ridge?

[monty]

Fantastic first photo. Nice one. Interesting ascent route. I went up through the forest like most walkers I think.

[dalmallywalker]

I'm very interested in your route to and up the west ridge as I was wanting to go up that way (I believe the walk up to the col between the 2 peaks is wet and difficult to find the route through the forest?). What was the route (if there was one) up through the forest to the west ridge like? Were there any bad bits (craggy, vertiginous, scary) on the way up to the ridge?

We chose to go up Beinn a'Chleibh via the west as we could not find a suitable river crossing point as the river was frozen and did not want to get wet feet that early on such a cold day! I knew there was a bridge to the west so went that way. Once accross the bridge the route finding was easy, there are far fewer trees than the OS map would suggest due to ongoing forestry work. We basically went straight up and followed a fence line until it was time to turn to the east. There were no tricky bits at all, mind you there was a foot of soft snow covering everything and due to the forestry work we could tell we were walking on the occasional tree stump or branch. I am glad we went this way as the normal route up through the forrest and Fionn Choiren would have been extremely tiring due to the depth of snow that lay there. The route back through the forrest on the way down was fairly easy, no path due to snow but just kept the burn to our left and followed it down.

[LeithySuburbs]

Love the first photo .

[mountain coward]

I'm very interested in your route to and up the west ridge as I was wanting to go up that way (I believe the walk up to the col between the 2 peaks is wet and difficult to find the route through the forest?). What was the route (if there was one) up through the forest to the west ridge like? Were there any bad bits (craggy, vertiginous, scary) on the way up to the ridge?

We chose to go up Beinn a'Chleibh via the west as we could not find a suitable river crossing point as the river was frozen and did not want to get wet feet that early on such a cold day! I knew there was a bridge to the west so went that way. Once accross the bridge the route finding was easy, there are far fewer trees than the OS map would suggest due to ongoing forestry work. We basically went straight up and followed a fence line until it was time to turn to the east. There were no tricky bits at all, mind you there was a foot of soft snow covering everything and due to the forestry work we could tell we were walking on the occasional tree stump or branch. I am glad we went this way as the normal route up through the forrest and Fionn Choiren would have been extremely tiring due to the depth of snow that lay there. The route back through the forrest on the way down was fairly easy, no path due to snow but just kept the burn to our left and followed it down.

Great - thanks for that - I'll probably be giving that route a go for the ascent and then just come back down the normal way when it doesn't matter how lost I get in the forest and how wet my feet get!

[Wanderlust]

Great pics, did you take any more...you get some superb views from those hills. I presume the last 2 pics are on Ben Lui summit.

[dalmallywalker]

Great pics, did you take any more...you get some superb views from those hills. I presume the last 2 pics are on Ben Lui summit.

Thanks, yes I took a few more pics. Yes, the last 2 were from the summit one looking back towards Cruachan and the Dalmally horseshoe and one looking north-ish.

[Wanderlust]

Ben Lui is my favourite mountain. It's a superb approach from the Cononish track, a nice summit aswell. Lot's of other magnificent hills in that area - wouldn't mind living around there myself.