 |
| Dan on the footbridge of doom |
A persistant flat tyre and a resultant trip to the garage delayed our Saturday start somewhat, and what with the Gleenshee road being dodgy near Blairgowrie, we decided by the time we got there we wouldn't really be rested for an early morning so a change of plans was in order.
 |
| Beautiful sunrise |
We stayed with friends in Glasgow Saturday night and headed to Tyndrum next morning planning to tick Beinn Dubhcraig and Ben Oss. Due to the woods being very icy, my friend being unfitter than he thought, and me being a little slow on the shoulder while I got used to the snow and ice (we countoured left to go up the shoulder as there was a cat 3 avalanche risk that would have got one side of the coire... and the shoulder looked easier because I'm a steep snow scaredy cat), we were going very slowly and it took us 4 hours to summit (6.5k). Given that due to the drive up from Glasgow and a supermarket stop we hadn't started until 9:10, we decided that it would be wise to sack off Ben Oss and start to descend. We didn't fancy reversing the way we'd come so decided to countour round to the other rib, but had a look down the coire on the way as there didn't actually look to be enough snow to avalanche. It looked fairly amenable so off we set, and it was fine - nice solid snow/neve only getting powdery if you came too far round, and steep enough to make me think but not enough to terrify me, could pretty much walk straight down with a little zigzagging. That was probably the highlight of the day - Dan got to play on the snow, and I felt empowered as I did something I was nervous of which actually went perfectly fine, making it fun. Since we had a bit of time in hand we dug an avalanche pit, hitting ground at the length of an axe and finding not a single layer, all well bonded. Somehow the entire descent took us the same as the ascent, but the ground was steep and the woods just as icy, so guess that's understandable. We got back to the car at 7pm, not needing to crack out the headtorches.
 |
Bit steep for me without a rope but I managed to contour round.
|
Sunday the avalanche risk had dropped down to cat 2, so we went to tick Beinn Narnain and Beinn Ime. We started at 8 and zigzagged up the forest enjoying the most beautiful sunset I think I've ever seen, then watching a fireball of a sun shining over to Ben Lomond. From the Narnain boulders we struck up the coire to the saddle, which got quite steep near the top. Then scrambled up to the Spearhead and climbed the gully. Due to it being fairly technical it took a whopping 4 1/4 hours to reach the summit (5km). There was still potentially time to get the other summit especially since the foresty track would be trivial to follow by headtorch so continued down to the Bealach a' Mhaim. We made a mutual decision as time was short I'd carry on up Beinn Ime at my own speed as would Dan and I'd meet him on the way down. I managed the 1.6km and 374m of ascent from the bealach to the summit in 56 mins, which meant we were back at the boulders by sunset and back at the car at 5:30 without needing headtorches again.
Both days were amazing days in the hills, and for me personally I felt a great sense of achievement as we bit off exactly the right amount of challenge.
 |
| Summit ridge of Beinn Narnain, Loch Lomond behind |
 |
| My 15th Munro, Beinn Narnain |
No comments:
Post a Comment