Meall Dearg

Everyone assures me that the Aonach Eagach ridge is wonderful, amazing, etc etc. I believe them, and maybe one day I'll venture along it's pinnacles and edges. Today, though - I was happy to trudge up the munro at the eastern end of the ridge. Meall Dearg. If I ever do have a go at the ridge, it will not be on my own on a freezing cold October day either!

I picked a route from Loch Leven, up the 'back' of the ridge, which avoided all the tricky scrambling on the Glen Coe side of the ridge. Driving towards Kinlockleven from GlenCoe, there is space for a few cars just past the campsite at Caolasnacon. Just past the second of the two bridges a path leaves the main road and follows the north bank of the Allt Glenn a Chaolais. After a few metres, it forks - with the left hand branch leading walkers off towards Garbh Bheinn - a striking Corbett. The main path though continues straight ahead, up the glen, which I took.

When I say "path" - I mean long, linear ghastly swamp. It's one one of the worst paths I've walked up for a long time. It is soggy, eroded, peaty and om some places just seems to disappear altogether! I had the dual misfortune today of also having pretty poor weather... MWIS is usually fairly pessimistic, but I think for the first time ever I had worse weather than they predicted! The cloud came down, it was cold, and going on the 'path', was slow and hard work.

In the mist, the only sound was that of howling stags, bellowing mournfully, the sounds bouncing back of the walls of the corries, high under the Aonach Eagach ridge.

Eventually I reached the huge bealach between Meall Dearg and Garbh Beinn. Thankfully one of the walkhighlands contributors had noted that in bad weather you can go past the lochan on the bealach and find a series of old iron fenceposts, which serve as a guide up to the summit. I was very grateful for the good online advice and the presence of the posts as I slipped. slimed, and edged my way up the alternating bands of peat, rock and scree. 

As I neared the top of the ridge, the first signs of sun began to mark the thinning cloud. Then, as I stood on the summit, the clouds parted for maybe 10 minutes, offering the most wonderful views down Glencoe..... which vanished as fast as they had appeared. I descended back to the bealach in thick cloud, feeling cold, and underwhelmed by the prospect of the slippery descent.

Still, the sun re-appeared and I could both see and hear the bellowing stags as I picked my way back to the car through the soggy peaty excuse for a path.

Beinn Each

 

Beinn Each is a great Corbett which sits just behind the more famous Stuc a Chroin, the Munro noted for its delightful scramble from adjacent Ben Vorlich. 

There is a layby on the main A84, Callandar to Strathtyre road, alongside Loch Lubnaig, and a farm called Ardchullarie More on the OS Map. with space for about 10 cars. The instructions on many of the hillwalking blogs and in the books, have been made slightly out of date by the amount of work which this farm is spending on landscaping, fencing, and hydro schemes. It's still pretty straightforward, but if you're reading this ahead of a trip up Beinn Each, note the following.

Start at the A84, by the track up to the farm, but you'll see that the right of way no longer goes up the farm track, but along a separate path behind a major fence. It's signposted by the SRWS so you'll not miss it. The path leads up to the right of the river at first, then crosses it, and ascends through thick woodland. 

The second place you might get lost is that the books say, "follow this path until you reach a bulldozed track and turn left onto this". However, there is a new bulldozed track through these woods, leading to what looks like a new hydro-electric scheme. So, when you reach the first bulldozed track, continue straight ahead along the footpath through the woods. When you reach the second one, that's the one to turn left onto! If you turn left too soon.. you'll end up in the bottom of the glen, far below the track up to Beinn Each.

The track up Glen Ample is a hideous eyesore in its lower reaches where bulldozers have 'upgraded' the access, and left an appalling mess - which is visible for miles. I know that estates have work to do, and that these lands exists as their economic assets, not just for my picture-postcard moments; nevertheless surely a balance must be struck. It's not as awful as the works under Beinn Bhuidhe (which defy belief), but I'm not convinced that the estate needed to leave quite this much damage as they did their work... or perhaps, to give them the benefit of the doubt, they are still working on it, and it will be fine when they have finished!

A very clearly marked signpost points walkers up the hill path away from the bulldozed track, This path, leads steeply at times, all the way to the summit - which cannot be seen until the last 100m of the 500m+ ascent. The views afforded from the top are really wonderful though, and this must be what attracted a surprising number of people to the summit today. The Forth, and the Ochils were obvious to the South, the Crainlarich Hills to the west and the Lawers group to the North surrounded us as Stuc a Chroin blocked our view of nearby Ben Vorlich. 

We took the same route down as we had come up, although I think my wife was tempted to go on a climb Stuc a Chroin (which she has not done, but seen from Vorlich). A time-check revealed that we were an hour or two late for a walk of that length which will be left for another time!

This  is a great, shorter, easily accessible half-day which rewards the walker with wonderful views and after a steep, stiff climb! I'd say, judging by today (a midweek in October), that car-parking spaces are at a premium, so get there early if you want to go up on a summer/weekend day.