Beinn Tulaichean and Cruach Ardrain - tick, tick, tick!

[2dalmatians]

Having failed to complete this walk on 29th January 2011 due to weather conditions I was determined to get back to them as soon as possible.
MWIS report was inidcating 90% cloud free summit - either I read the report for the wrong region or MWIS got it completely wrong as visibility was "pea soup" for alomost the entire day!

So therefore no stunning panorama pictures in this report unfortunately (or in my case "very average" pictures

So we set off from the farm at Inverlochlarig at around 0845. The "we" being my mate Kevin, myself and Ruby as usual

Here we go!

Now my map reading skills are not great (getting better) however I did have my Garmin etrex and one way or another I was determined to get to the top today. We traversed across the hill trying to pick our way up or find some signs of life. After a long long time we finally hit the path thanks to Ruby the great tracker dog!

found the path at last!!!

Once on the path the walk to the summit was straight forward. We got to the cairn took some pictures offered congratulations and then realised we were at the wrong one!

wrong one!

wrong one!

Beinn tuliachean - the right one!

Beinn tuliachean - the right one!

Beinn Tuliachean - tick

After a quick drink and a bite to eat we set off towards Cruach Ardrain. By now the route was becoming quite busy and a few discussions with various other walkers would suggest support for a potential collective greviance against MWIS!

So after around 40 minutes we reached Crauch Ardrain - Tick

Cruach Ardrain

Ruby waiting for her treat :-)

And then just as we were getting ready to head back we got the only glimpse of blue sky all day!

Heading back we had planned to drop down to pick up the path at approx NN413204, however the slopes still had a fair bit of snow and were very steep so we opted for the safer decision which was to go back the way we came via Beinn Tuliachean summit. I hqave to say climbing this summit for a second time was not nice and not in the plan!

Beinn Tuliachean Tick Tick...

This did however give us the giggle of the day. Another dog showed up - he was completely hyper - and literally a minute before I had taken this picture had "marked his territory" against the leg of an unsuspecting fellow walker who was having a chat with someone!!

Are there Dog asbos?

Ruby was not impressed! lol

A giant stone head with a flat top greeted us on the way down...

Stone head

Our route for the day - not very conventional bt it did the job

Very tired we reached the car around 415pm but with a sense of achievement. If only the weather had been kinder...

[allister3]

congrat`s on getting there,we left the car park at 9,30,waited till the rain dropped,to head up to the bealach between more and bennein to get ben more this time round,the weather was totaly wrong,we seen no sun on our ascend and had to give in due to the never ending thin ice sheet and zero visibility at about 700m,was that people carrier your`s i seen the print off on the dashboard?,i did`nt know there was a path up to tulaichean,we went up on tues,straight up the south side then ardrain then descended to the east and straight up stob bennein,it was too late in the day to get to ben more,so we tried yesterday,trusting the mwis weather....

allister3

[2dalmatians]

Allister3 - yes that was my car you saw (with the MWIS print too!). I dont think there is a path all the way up Tuliachean but there is certainly a partial path which we picked up at about 650mtrs. It may be that the recent wet weather has camouflaged it? well done on the hatrick earlier in the week too! sounds like a tough day?

[Bruadair]

Hi 2D's,

Good to see you got them conquered this time after getting so close at last attempt....Well done.

Regards.................B

[allister3]

congrat`s on getting there,we left the car park at 9,30,waited till the rain dropped,to head up to the bealach between more and bennein to get ben more this time round,the weather was totaly wrong,we seen no sun on our ascend and had to give in due to the never ending thin ice sheet and zero visibility at about 700m,was that people carrier your`s i seen the print off on the dashboard?,i did`nt know there was a path up to tulaichean,we went up on tues,straight up the south side then ardrain then descended to the east and straight up stob bennein,it was too late in the day to get to ben more,so we tried yesterday,not the pathwaytrusting the mwis weather....

allister3

[2dalmatians]

Cheers Bruadair. Ironically it was a much better day the last time, only the ground conditions were treacherous.

[rockhopper]

well done on completing them this time despite the weather conditions