Creag Mhor & Beinn Heasgarnich

Late October and we were on holiday in Edinburgh during the Toussaint break. Despite coming from Marseille by Ryanair with hand baggage only, I'd managed to bring my boots - by wearing them on the plane! I wasn't hopeful about getting any decent weather so it was a special treat that the day Ruth and I ended up doing a climb it was beautifully sunny for most of the day. We were running out of Munros we both still had to do within striking distance of Edinburgh, but these two in Glen Lochay were among them, and what's more Ruth, being at 149, was poised to clock up her 150th Munro that day. We parked halfway up the little zigzag road from Kenknock that eventually takes you over to Glen Lyon - halfway because there were patches of ice all over the road, and after I'd got out to chip it from under the wheels a couple of times we decided we'd be quicker walking.

We cut out a zigzag by going on foot and got back to the road not far from where the upper track branches off to head up the glen, the place where we'd been meaning to park the car.

It was a beautiful sunny walk along the track towards Creag Mhor, with views back to the Tarmachan ridge, ahead to Ben Challum, and across Glen Lochay to Meall Glas and Sgiath Chuil, not to mention the added interest of various bits and pieces of hydro-electric engineering.

The "two brutes" - <a class='news' href='walk.php?wa=45'>Meall Glas and Sgiath Chuil</a> - looked a lot more inviting today than back when I'd climbed them on a dull day in August 2004. They also look like they're a lot easier to get to from this side.

There was plenty of snow higher up on the hills, but at this height there were only frozen puddles which looked like they would be thawed out by later in the day.

I've been telling people that I mean to save Ben Challum ("Malcolm's Hill") for my last Munro, this despite the fact that I had the impression that it wasn't a very interesting one. However, today I got my first proper view of it and I was pleasantly surprised that it looks, from Glen Lochay at least, like quite a respectable summit to save for last.

Autumn trees, with Ben Challum beyond

We weren't too sure where to leave the track and head up the slopes of Sron nan Eun, Creag Mhor's southeast ridge. In fact we started up on the northeast side of the Allt Batavaim which wasn't very clever as we then had to descend into quite a deep gorge and out again to get across to the right side. Soon we were getting glimpses of Beinn Heasgarnich's summit ridge, also showing off plenty of snow.

This boulder with it's rather striking moss-covered top we decided looked like a head. And thus began the legend of the Evil Troll of Glen Lochay who, coming out of his cave one morning in late October and assuming that the weather would be the usual grim, rainy offering, found to his astonishment that it was beautiful sunshine and thus was instantly turned to stone. The moral of the story - if you're a troll, always check the weather forecast.

Now we were into some serious ascent, without much signs of a path. The SMC guidebook describes a route up between the crags of Sron nan Eun which we followed without much difficulty.

As we climbed higher we began to come across some snow underfoot, as well as some impressive arrays of icicles. By now the weather was showing signs of clouding over however.

Looking southwest from Sron nan Eun

Beinn Heasgarnich again

And then we were up onto the top of Sron nan Eun and could see ahead of us the upper part of Creag Mhor. It still looked like we had quite a bit of climbing to do. From here we were also wondering how icy it was up there. Ruth had her ice axe, and was now thinking she might need it.

Now that we were into unbroken snow we picked up a fresh set of bootprints which looked like they'd been left by someone who had been ahead of us that morning. This made route-finding and trudging through the deeper sections of snow much easier than it would have been otherwise.

The summit ridge seemed longer than it had looked from below, and it was a while before we finally reached the summit. By this time we were in some mist, with a very cold wind buffeting us all the way. On the bright side, the snow was fairly easy and there was no need for Ruth's ice axe in the end. This was of course Ruth's 150th Munro so it was a pity the conditions weren't more conducive to celebration. She realized a bit later that she hadn't even got a photo of the moment on her own camera.

I did capture the event though, before we hurried on to look for somewhere more sheltered to stop for lunch.

As indicated in the guidebook, we continued westwards a little way past the summit before descending and skirting round below the northern crags of Creag Mhor. It was about here that Ruth pulled out her portable "bothy" and we got in it to have some lunch. We were now out of the cloud again but we could see that Beinn Heasgarnich was still in mist higher up. We could also see just how low the col is between Creag Mhor and Beinn Heasgarnich and Ruth, who seemed to be feeling inexplicably tired on this walk, was even wondering if she should attempt the second Munro at all.

Once we'd eaten something and had got down to the col, Ruth was feeling a bit more ready for the ascent, so we set off up the slopes of Sron Tairbh, Heasgarnich's southwest ridge. As we climbed we got an impressive view back to the crags of Creag Mhor. We could also see that the summit was now completely clear of cloud - always an annoying sight when you were there in cloud only a short time ago!

I was fascinated by some of the icicle formations that we saw during the day. It's amazing what a bit of ice can do for the aesthetic appeal of a smelly old peat bog!

It was during this rather gruelling ascent that Ruth remembered that she had given blood just two days earlier and wondered if that was perhaps why she was feeling so exhausted. "They do say not to do anything strenuous that day or the day after," she said. Perhaps on this basis climbing two Munros in winter conditions the day after that is a little ambitious and not really to be recommended! Anyway, she heroically struggled on, and once we had got the steep ascent behind us it got a bit easier.

By this time the weather was definitely clearing up again and we were getting some beautiful views especially to the west and north, over Loch Lyon. We really had no idea what hills we were looking at but studying the map afterwards I worked out that this was an unusual view of Beinn Mhanach and its neighbour Beinn a' Chreachain.

Further round to the northwest we could see what I believe are Beinn Dorain, Beinn an Dothaidh and Beinn Achaladair, with the Black Mount peeping through in the far distance.

Looking over to Meall Glas and the Crianlarich Hills

The steep climbing was now over but it still looked rather a long way along the ridge to the summit. However it was a pleasant walk in the snow and the occasional sunshine and we didn't do too badly.

Ruth striding out towards the summit

Once at the summit of Beinn Heasgarnich we had to decide which route to take back. The three options in Ruth's Cicerone guide were (1) to return to Stob an Fhir-Bhogha and descend to the track from there, (2) to return all the way to the col and follow the Allt Batavaim back to the track or (3) to head east from the summit of Beinn Heasgarnich until reaching the road over to Glen Lyon. I hadn't really appreciated that the ridge we'd just walked along was more south-north than west-east or I'd have felt better about option 1. As it was it seemed too much like needless back-tracking and in the end we plumped for option 3, which the guidebook described, somewhat euphemistically I think, as "the most interesting". Of course we didn't have a lot of daylight left by this stage so we didn't hang about but began heading down more or less due east. We had to find our way through a tangle of ridges, bumps and extensive bogs - this is of course what is "interesting" about this route. It got especially interesting for me when, confronted by a particularly awkwardly placed stretch of bog, I decided it looked frozen enough to take my weight and stepped onto it. As it turned out it was not that frozen at all and I slid in up to my thighs. Having managed to struggle out I now realized that my legs were soaked and there was even more urgency to get back to the car quickly. The light was now fading and we had still seen no sign of the road. In the end though it loomed ahead in the gathering gloom as we knew it had to sooner or later and we struggled the last little way over to it. By now it was almost totally dark, but this wasn't too problematic as we simply had to follow the road back towards Glen Lochay. It still took us a fair while and we were both pretty exhausted by the time we stumbled down the zigzags of the road, now thankfully ice-free, to where we'd left the car. It had been a long hard day, particularly for Ruth in the circumstances, but I was very pleased to have snatched another two Munros on this autumn trip to Scotland.