
I had wonderful memories of a walk I did to Beinn Dorain on my own in 1999 - not up the popular route, but from Tyndrum via the West Highland Way and the Auch Glen. I decided to organise a Meetup group walk to Beinn an Dothaidh along the Auch Glen. There were eight of us and we had a gorgeous sunny day. Although the walk was lovely, a few people found the pathless hillside a bit steep.
As we approached the bealach, one group member, who was a bit over-confident in his navigational abilities, insisted that it would be quicker to continue going off-path and to head north, away from the bealach, up a much steeper but more direct route to the summit. He simply strided off in that direction, looking so confident that the others followed him. Eventually I gave in and followed him, which was a big mistake. Most of the others found it a real struggle. At one point this man suggested going up some steep rocky outcrops - and I did put my foot down very strongly at that. When we finally got to the summit ridge, he politely admitted that he`d made a mistake going that way.
As group organiser I should definitely have stuck to my guns and insisted on going via the bealach. However when we got to the summit plateau we all thoroughly enjoyed exploring the three summit plateau cairns and looking at the fantastic views, before descending down the popular path.
Area :
Bridge Of Orchy (Beinn A'chreachain) To Schiehallion
The mountains immediately to the south of Loch Rannoch and to the north of Glen Lyon stretch all the way from Schiehallion (1083m), the birthplace of Charles Hutton’s contour lines, to Beinn Dorain (1076m) near the Bridge of Orchy. There are twelve Munros and a number of other peaks (above 800m) in the mountains list. The peaks to the south of Glen Lyon are included in the Glen Lyon to Glen Dochart & Loch Tay area.