Beinn an Lochain

My original plan was to head North and grab a couple of Munros but at 0445 I was wakened by a rather worried woman - she would prefer I did something more local and as SWMBO, I accepted and went back to sleep. At 0800, I rolled out of a surprisingly snowy Glasgow and made for Beinn an Lochain. I had heard much about this hill and it always looked very dramatic from the Rest and be Thankful. In fact, I had climbed Stob Coire Creagach a few weeks back to see what it looked like from the North - very dramatic. Rather than parking right opposite the starting point, I parked about 400m further South in a layby and began the walk. It was cold but beautiful. My sense of anticipation for this trip was strong and I was really looking forward to one of THOSE days where I knew conditions were perfect. The great thing about this hill is that the views all round are fantastic, it's quite steep and offers a quick ascent. Furthermore, I love craggy peaks and this one was superb. It's all very benign up to about 600m but you can make out the summit peak at the end of the hill. Coupled with views over to the Cobbler, Beinn Ime and tranquil Loch Restil down below, could there be a better peak in Arrochar? I love the Cobbler but I love Beinn an Lochain, so which is better? Only one way....At 600m, you begin to make acquaintance with the North face and it is possible to pick out some lines, if you're into rock-climbing. As the sun blasted the Eastern slopes, the oppressively dark cliffs on the North face loomed and as I got higher, the track got narrower and more exposed. Nothing too serious but care was needed especially as much of the path was frozen in places. From below, it looks horrific but a good path wends its way higher and higher. The final push was fantastic and not that exposed but it still offered an exciting end to a great wee mountain. For such a super hill, I was slightly surprised at how small the cairn was but the views from the top were breath-taking. As I sat and drank in my water and the vistas, I felt at peace. Until this old codger scared the living shecht out of me by shouting "morning!" He had come up the other side of the face and was double ice-axed up. He must have been near 70 and rather than offer an apology to my sweary exclamation, he just laughed. Aye, I would have done the same, I thought! I proffered my good wishes and began my descent off the South summit, down through the crags. It wasn't long before I hit the road and began the trek back to the car. This fantastic mountain deserves a great day of weather and having done it in Winter, I would wholeheartedly recommend this. Brilliant.

Attack of the Blisterons on Beinn Mholach & Meall na Leitreach

A bothy meet had been planned for a wee while and Daz, Graeme and I met up at Perth to be whisked North in Daz's new Honda. Talk about spaceship interiors, it wasn't long before he had has verging on warp speed up the A9. As it happened, I had just purchased a Fukifilm camera for some 10 Megapixel shots. Anything to perhaps win a £40 voucher on walkhighlands! We left the Enterprise at Dalnaspidal galaxy and began the long walk along Loch Garry with heavy packs but light hearts. Although the cloud was not lifting, our spirits were and we were just getting into the walk when Darren announced that the Blisterons were attacking in full-force on ankles. A curious species threatened to force Daz to turn round and abandon all bothy and peak ticks. Fortunately, he managed to hobble to Duinish and once he saw the rather lovely bothy and we deposited our future carbon footprints, the non-lady was not for turning. Wounds attended to and several kilos and skin layers lighter, we made for Beinn Mholach. An initially boggy/bunny ascent became much more interesting as we hit the snow and craggy asteroid belt. Then began the walk along the plateau before we eventually made out the huge cairn that resembled a dun. Unfortunately, cloud level was down so visibility was limited to only a few glimpses of Loch Rannoch and beyond. I would imagine this would be quite a good, wee hill in visibility but any day that it doesn't rain, does for me. Before we left to return to space-docking station for the night, I did take a photo of a cracking mini-species which had colonised one of the cairn rocks. Like a fanfare of trumpets sounding out its tune. The return to the bothy was fine and once the fire was on, we sat and relished the heat of the fire, the hot chilli beef jerky and some fine ale and uisge bheath. The jokes were terrible. At 0500, we awoke and breakfasted before heading out with headtorches to seek out the Graham, Creag a Mhadaidh before finally heading back over Meall na Leitreach to the awaiting Enterprise. I thought these two hills were quite uneventful or maybe it was a lack of caffeine which was turning me into a monosyllabic zombie - not even pain au chocolate could wake me from my dwam. CaM must be one of the most unfrequented hills in Scotland but it's large cairn and view down to Loch Errochty make up for its apparent ignominy. There was some discussion about whether we were at the cairn on the latter but we did a recon mission and found no other cairn, this had to be it! A swift return down the hill and the A9 had us back to Planet Pearth in no-time. Another fine hill expo with Dazulan and Graeme the vulcan. We made it so.