Beinn a'Chrulaiste

This walk description is a little unusual as I hadn't originally intended to climb Beinn a'Chrulaiste. The day's target was Buchaille Etive Mor, but Mother Nature had other plans for me. It was a sturday in mid October 2008 when I stepped off the Citylink bus near Altnafeadh (at the bottom of the Devil's Staircase) intent on finally climbing B.E.M at the third attempt.

The first two attempts in June 2008 had been foiled by a road accident closing the A82, whilst the second attempt had been in early September 2008. On that occasion I decided that only having a view for the first few hundred metres, because of rain and low cloud, made the climb pretty pointless. After all I wanted to see the magnificent view down Glen Etive to Loch Etive.

So there I was ready to do battle with this brute of a hill and what does the weather do? Well the rain, that had been falling all the way since Bridge of Orchy, starts to fall more heavily and the wind picks up speed significantly. "Never mind," I thought, "the forecast is for it to be better latter on". So off I start up the path and take the path that leads into Coire na Tulaich.

Almost immediately, I began to have doubts as the wind was clearly going to be a problem higher up. But the real problem came when I reached the burn that cascades out of the corry. I couldn't see any safe way across the water although, I have to admit, a group of three young men before me had crossed it. Perhaps being the wrong side of fifty, and on my own, makes me more reluctant to find myself soaked to the skin or worse!

A few minutes wandering up and down the banks convinced me that I would be unwise to try and cross. In any case I also wanted to climb both the Munros on Buchaille Etive Mor,  and I was becoming somewhat concerned about the thought of negotiating the return route down from Stob Dubh into Lairig Gartain in the conditions underfoot.

So the decision was made for me, and I turned back towards the road and the West Highland Way. I usually try to have a fall back option for a day's walk and, on this occasion, it was Beinn a'Chrulaiste, a Corbett at 857m.

The new target, Beinn a'Chrulaiste, seen from Altnafeadh

So, knowing I'd made the right decision I set off along the West Highland Way towards Kings House. Not surprisingly, the path resembled a stream with water two or three inches deep over much of its length. As usual, I fell into conversation with several walkers including a group who were walking from Kings House to Fort William in one day - 33 miles doesn't sound a great deal of fun to me.......

Water torrents pouring down the side of Buchaille Etive Mor as sen from the West Highland Way.

Now, I'm a great fan of Harvey's 1:25000 maps and prefer them to the Ordnance Survey maps but, on this occasion, I have to state that Harvey's have discovered a path that does not appear to exist. Supposedly, at about Grid Reference NN245556 a track leaves the W.H.W. path and contours across the hillside towards the end of Beinn a'Chrulaiste's south east ridge.

Crossing the moor above Kings House

It's marked very clearly on the map, but quite where it is on the ground I don't know.  No matter, because the hillside was easy to walk across and not especially boggy. At about NN258560 I turned north westwards up the steepish slopes heading towards the summit. For about a kilometre it's fairly hard going although a track does emerge in places, but then the gradient eases as the summit ridge is neared.

Climbing away from the Allt a'Bhalaich

The climb was enlivened, first by a helicopter landing on the lawn of the Kings House Hotel, and then by a stag and his attendant females. It was the first time I'd heard the strange grating sounds and bellowing of a stag and this really "made" the walk for me. I was within a couple of hundred feet of the stag before it noticed me, bellowed and trotted off into the corry above the Allt a'Bhalaich. This was a truly magical moment and completely wiped away any regrets I'd felt not climbing Buchaille Etive Mor.

Looking across Rannoch Moor

Mealla 'Bhuiridh and Creise - good to see where I'd been a few weeks before.

Looking towards the summit of Beinn a'Chrulaiste.

The trig point on the summit.

To raise my spirits even further the weather had finally improved with the cloud base lift and the sunny breaking through the clouds for long periods.

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The panoramic picture (click on image for full size photo) shows :

to the left Buchaille Etive Mor and Buchaille Etive Beag and Glen Coe;

in the centre the ridge leading towards Aonach Eagach;

to the right the valley with Loch Leven and beyond the Mamores;

on the far right the Blackwater Reservoir.

The walk from the start at Altnafeadh had taken an hour to reach the beginning of the climb, and a further I hour 45 minutes to the summit. After a long pause at the summit, to soak in the views, I headed down hill to the Kings House hotel, taking longer to get down than up as I kept stopping to sit in the sun and admire the views of Rannoch Moor.

The boggy section across the moor by the side of the Allt a'Bhalaich didn't prove to be as bad as expected and I was in my room at Kings House by four o'clock.

As a postscript to the walk I was woken up several times by another stag, which kept parading around the lawn of the hotel all through the night. There aren't many places where you can look out of your bedroom window and watch deer at such close quarters.

Equally interesting was my wait for the bus back to Glasgow with numerous stags roaring away continuously. I now lnow what the rutting season sounds like!