Arrochar Alps hike with Nikki and Scott.
**************************************************************************The plan*****************************************************
Route Description: Starting at the Arrochar Carpark (Grid Reference NN 294 049), we head west, ascending through the Monadh Liath Forest. Upon exiting the forest, we cross a stream and then continue left to climb the spur An t-Sron, leading us all the way up to The Cobbler at 884 meters.
From there, we descend the north peak and cross Bealach a' Mhaim. We carry on in a north-westerly direction traversing the base of Beinn Ime then we hit the side of Beinn Luibhean and start our ascent up the rough, un-pathed slope to the summit at 858 meters.
Next, we head due East, descending down the west side of the main spur toward a stream source then continue down to Bealach Mhargaidh, here we cross to the Beinn Imi side. We then tackle the super steep slope up to the summit of Beinn Ime, the highest peak in the area at 1,011 meters.
After summiting Beinn Ime, we head back down the main path to Bealach a' Mhaim. We then take the steep, rugged left path up to the top of Beinn Narnain at 926 meters.
Following this summit, we begin our long descent back to the carpark, taking in the Spearhead, Cruach Nam Miseag, and Creag an Fhithich along the way. Finally, we join the steep path that leads us straight down through the forest to the road.
Grid Reference of meeting location: NN294049
Distance: 17.23km
Elevation: 1855m
Start Date and Time: 2024-10-31T10:00
Expected Duration: 7 hour(s)
Sunrise and Sunset Times:
Sunrise: 07:18,
Sunset: 16:38
Expected End Date and Time: 17:00
Purpose of the Hike - Hitting some good peaks: The Cobbler (884m), Beinn Luibhean (858m), Beinn Ime (1,011m), Beinn Narnain (926m).
Learning: Every hiking trip brings its own opportunity to learn and adapt.
Participants: 3 Participants - Orran Smith (leader) - no health issues. Nikki Arthur, good mountain skills - no health issues. Scott Brown, also good mountain skills - Sinus problems and recovering from a cold.
Weather and Safety Expected Weather: Met - Overcast, chance of rain developing through the day, quite a strong South West wind (35-40mph). Cold front passing over, pushing into a high pressure area in the afternoon. MWIS- Windy, cloudy on the tops all day and drizzle most of the day. BBC - rain in the morning but cloudy with Sunny spells. Temp around 8 degrees.
************************************************What actually happened***************************************
I got a call from Scott the day before we planned to go saying he wasn't going to make it. This switched up the plan dramatically. Scott loves being in the hills and mountains and his main motivation is smashing climbs and hitting peaks so that is what the original plan was designed for. Given that he's now pulled out, and the fog was down, Me and Nikki decided to take a much slower approach and focus our attention on the flora in the area and learning what the Gaelic terms meant.
On the morning of the Hike the wind was due to be slightly worse on the tops at around 50mph but still coming from the south west. Given our planed route we thought we'd be fine for most of it.
The mist was higher than the expected 400m and we had drizzle all day long.
We made our way up through the forest section, at an easy pace and using google lens to help identify different kinds of flora. Given the poor visibility this was a great idea as it kept us busy and engaged the whole time. The rout we took kept us in shelter from the strong south westly winds for the most part too.
Even though we were moving at a leisurely pace we still managed to get 3 big peaks in and took some challenging routes.
We decided to miss out Beinn Narnain on the way back as we weren't prepared to be rushing. We just took the main valley path back to the carpark.
Learing:
We learned that Bealach is the Scots Gaelic term for a pass.
Creag an Fithich means - Of the raven.
Cruach nam Miseag means - heap or hill top of the cat.
and Sron is pronounced - Tron and means nose or ridge.
We found some devils matchstick, plenty of mushrooms, A big spider and learned a bit more about the moss we came across. We also investigated some folded rock and learned about why they are folded in the same direction all across Scotland.
It was brilliant and we both had a fantastic day in spite of the bad weather.
Area :
Loch Fyne to Loch Long (Beinn an Lochain)
South of the A83 as far as Dunoon and sandwiched in between Loch Fyne and Loch Long are a number of peaks, none of which qualify for Munro status. The southern half of the Arrochar Alps includes Beinn an Lochain, which at 901m was wrongly included in Sir Hugh Munro’s original list of 3000ft peaks in Scotland. The mountains list contains all peaks above 600m.
