Day 3
Lairig Dhoireann to Bealach north west of Stob Coire an Albannaich
Daily Distance 20.2k, Time Naismith 8.28, Daily Ascent 2075m, Daily Average Altitude 579m
The map shows our actual route in Blue, and the intended route where it was different in red. The blue numbers on our route are highlighted in the text. The red squares are Munros.
We set off at 7 am having had less sleep than we liked, but we were not cold. For a pass marked as a footpath on our map the route was very scanty and steep both up and down. 1 When we were in the valley Allt Dhoirrean the side valleys caused slow progress. We stopped in a lovely dingle just before the valley opened up into Glen Kinglass and had a well earned snack. We did not reach the bridge across Glen Kinglass 2 until 11am, so we were about 4 hours behind schedule because of the bad choice at the Summit of Bienn Eunaich.
We went up Glen Kinglass a kilometre and then set off up Allt Hallater. 3 We stopped for lunch at a sunny period and spread our sleeping bag over a rock to dry. Our original plan was to climb Bienn nan Aighenan and perhaps detour to Take in Ben Starav. We were behind so we did not do either but climbed to the bealach north of Ben nan Aighenan then to 4 the bealach East of Ben Starav, then, despite Ben Starav looking lovely with snow on it we turned East towards Glas Bienn Mor. At this point we were walking with 4 Munro Baggers with day packs. They had heard of the TGO challenge but thought that "they walked from pub to pub across Scotland".
We were crossing snow fields on East facing slopes but the west and summits were clear. We sometimes used our axes. The baggers turned off 5 and we started the steep climb to Stob Coire an Albannaich. After the initial climb this mountain has a lovely snow covered reasonably flat large top. The sky was clear the wind was low it was beautiful. After the summit we looked at our descent. We needed to descend the ridge on a snow field to loose height and then drop off the ridge to the bealach below. We had caught up a lot by missing Ben Starav but we were still a bit behind. Rather than be forced to camp higher we decided to camp at this bealach 754m (2473ft).
With axes out again we easily descended the ridge. 6 We looked over the edge to see how to get down to the bealach. To our left was a lovely smooth snow gulley that I wanted to glissade down, but it ended in a jumble of rocks. If you could not be sure to stop it was not safe. Below us was a mixture of slippy rock slabs and snow between, some bits easy and some bits difficult. We had to get down that, it was a mixture of small glissades and scrambles, it took some time but we were down to a good campsite early enough to cook, make another hot water bottle, and catch up on sleep. There was enough shelter at this bealach to give confidence if the wind rose. It did not; we had a quiet night.
