Lagangarbh Weekend Meet, Glencoe

Nine club members braved the rocks and potholes of the track from Altnafeadh to reach the footpath for Lagangarbh - a short trip, but stressful if your car has low ground clearance.  We had sole occupancy of the nicely refurbished Lagangarbh hut.  On arrival, Arthur promptly discovered that he had forgotten his sleeping bag, but improvised with a car rug and a duvet jacket.

The weekend was mainly dry, but a bit grey with flat light which did not help the photographers (So there are less photos than usual in this report), although a heavy shower on Sunday cleared the air somewhat.  The weekend saw Ewen, Steve, Andreas and Marcus on Buachaille Etive Mor; Emma on Buachaille Etive Beag, Bidean nam Bian, and Stob Coire Sgreamhach.  Sarah tackled Creise, Meall a Bhùridh and Beinn Sgulaird. Robin and Arthur continued their Corbetts campaign on the hills above Tyndrum  and in Glen Etive (more of which below). Michael explored the West Highland Way from Lagangarbh to Bridge of Orchy on his bike and joined Ewen and Steve for a pre departure walk up Beinn a’ Chrùlaiste on Sunday.

Glencoe was, as usual very busy with walkers, climbers and tourists although we missed most of the crowd with the hut being just off the beaten track.  Although we did have one or two tourists peering through the window of the hut. (I think the smell of Steve’s chillies cooking attracted them.)  Chatting to an NTS Ranger, who was having a look out for wild camping by the river at the hut, we found out that NTS are developing much needed plans to improve on the car parking situation in Glencoe, but unfortunately not the parking between Altnafeadh and the track to the hut. That part of the glen is not in NTS ownership, it belongs to Black Corries Estate.

We had an excellent and sociable weekend in the refurbished hut - well done SMC.

Robin writes:

IMC graybeards Arthur & Robin, encouraged by their Corbett bagging success in Argyll three weekends previously, headed for the clutch of five Corbetts to the East of Bridge of Orchy. Unusually for Corbetts, the five can be captured in one long expedition involving almost 2,000M of ascent, but the Dynamic Duo decided that just two - Beinn a’Chaisteil and Beinn nam Fhuaran were a more relaxing proposition. The first few km involved joining the wayfarers of the West Highland Way trudging north from Tyndrum, but they were soon left behind, and after a few more km of track trudging, grassy slopes led to the breezy summit of “castle mountain” aka Beinn a’Chaisteil 886M. More grassy slopes descending north led to a boggy bealach where the only other two hillgoers of the day - a friendly couple - were encountered. From there an unremittingly steep slog took them to the 806M cairn on the summit of the “mountain of the springs” - Beinn nam Fuaran - which affords a fine view over lonely Loch Lyon.

Sunday saw the pair head down Glen Etive, sadly now disfigured by no less than seven hydro-electric schemes under simultaneous construction, to the fine Corbett of Stob Dubh. Thanks to an unholy combination of construction sites and the usual hordes of car based not quite so wild campers - present in even greater numbers than in previous years - parking was an issue, which necessitated abandoning the planned route via Alltchaorunn Lodge in favour of an approach from the south via Glenceitlen, location of one of the aforementioned construction sites. Now the “official” (ie the SMC guidebook) route takes an uncompromising line straight up the intimidatingly steep SW ridge and through a line of crags guarding the final approach to the 883M summit. Contemplating this unappealing prospect head on (which makes everything look even steeper) the by now somewhat less-than-Dynamic Duo decided instead to carry on up the glen and make the ascent via the little-visited but very pleasant 757M subsidiary top a km or so SE of Stob Dubh itself. By this time it was wet, but the rain relented shortly after the main summit was attained, enabling fine mountain views in all directions, a prospect much improved by all the construction mess being rendered invisible by the lower slopes.

A couple of hours later, back at the car, a group of would-be-wild-swimmers turned up, took a look at Arthur changing his clothes, and asked if he’d been in for a dip. I didn’t think the rain had been that bad.

Marcus writes:

The bus driver was having a bad day. Well it was Friday the 13th! He was adamant that he would not stop at Altnafeadh but could only let me off at the nearest official bus stop at Glencoe Mountain Ski Centre Road End. This meant I would have to walk back the extra 5km in the wet. Fortunately for me his bus was also having a bad day and developed a bad rattle at the top of Glencoe forcing him to stop to check it out at… Altnafeadh! I only had to make the short walk down to Lagangarbh Cottage and was the first one there. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching tourists taking selfies with the “wee white house” for their Instagrams.

For Sunday I had planned to start a long walk home to Inverness. Initially I followed the West Highland Way which I was informed I was doing in the wrong direction by the torrent of “Wayers” coming from Kingshouse. Once on the Black Corries track I had more solitude but it was surprisingly busy with TGO Challengers. This is a fine track with only a short boggy section between land-rover tracks just before the plantation above Loch Laidon. On the descent into Rannoch I updated my weather forecast and realised to my horror that the stability that had been predicted all the previous week had been replaced with gales and heavy rain. I pitched up as planned by Lochan Sron Smeur, on my mainly pathless shortcut through to the Ben Alder Cottage track. However the already increasing wind forced a rather unglamorous pitch tucked in behind the boat shed, rather than by the beach as planned.

I took stock of my position. It would not be fun walking head on into the gale and rain the next day, but I could ride out most of the storm in Ben Alder Cottage. However I would then be running low on food with a distinct possibility that I would exhaust my supplies before Fort Augustus. Also my planned climb of Ben Alder promised to be rather grim. I have already been forced off this remote mountain by bad weather and had promised myself that the next attempt would be on a fine day!With a second storm promising to hit just as I would be crossing the Corrieyairack, I decided to save the walk for nicer weather. The night was indeed stormy. I was surprised how big the waves can get even on a small body of water, but was lulled to sleep by the crashing of the waves and the banging of a boat moored the other side of the shed. I woke to mist and headed down to Rannoch station through the rain. Shelter was found in the wonderful tea shop whilst I waited for a train.