mamores 6/9/18

6/9/18 my last 3 of the mamores Munros Kinlochleven hills

                Bob picked me and Sheila up from my house at 06:00 and we were all good to go. we had been at a gig in the warehouse Falkirk the night before so had a few but not enough to make us sleep in or be ill , there was the usual good banter on the car on the way up , the only thing worth mentioning about the two hour drive up was a fallen deer that we had to swerve round after a sharp corner and sharp brake ( on the way home the deer’s head was pulp a headless bloody carcass now ) bob had never done any of these hills from this area before previously the Mamore lodge house had a car park you paid £2 for and started your walk from there , this made me in charge of showing bob were the car park was and the initial route up ! 

The walk begins from the car park adjacent to St Paul's Church in Kinlochleven; it is signed 'Grey Mare's Tail' from the main road. From the car park we followed the path into the woods; it is signed for 'Spean Bridge' and 'Corrour Station'. We then turned left at a small cottage and into the trees proper following a stream, then the path forks by the small burn at a gate fork left, crossing the burn. The route climbs up through the deciduous woodland and gives increasingly good views back over Kinlochleven and Loch Leven behind. The original zig-zagging stalkers path has been short-cutted by a variety of eroded, direct routes; it is best to keep to the old route to avoid worsening the erosion. Soon the trees are left behind and more open moorland is reached and following the stalkers path back round in order to follow the main path round to our first Munroe  of the day - Binnein Beag  it would be possible on a big day to also do sgurr elide mor but I had previously done that and daylight hours were at a premium early October gets dark early and we didn’t fancy a heads torch finish ,  we stopped top check our route at a wonderful view point looking back down Loch Leven to the Pap of glen coe, and stuck to a well-defined stalkers path around the lochan Binnein Beag is an outlier of the Mamore’s and the most remote peak in the range. Although close by its much higher neighbour Binnein Mor, Binnein Beag is a steep-sided cone and admits of no inferiority to its higher siblings it’s a zig zag steep trek up to its summit but  the summit the views all round were fantastic , it was cold for early October and I regretted my glove choice I had on much too thin gloves and my pinky was nipping , when we stopped for a quick sandwich at the summit and spoke to the geocacher who done some fancy pose on the summit for a photo 

                We descended back down to the lochan where bob wanted to have a group chat , our ascent toward our next Munroe Binnein Mor had two options apparently ! bob with his usual flare would like to give the scramble up the north east buttress a go but if the group preferred we could skirt over to our right and join the ridge lower down away from any scrambling , I said I wasn’t sure or didn’t care and asked Sheila what she felt she was wanting the scramble so decision made ! to be fair the scramble wasn’t as bad as it looked from below and the slippery cold quartzite rock had plenty good hand and foot grips  we got caught out in a slight snow flurry which was early for the season and not strong , and before we knew it we were on the ridge summit it’s a wonderful airy perch with spectacular views. The peak of Binnein Beag far below looks so small in comparison that it’s hard to believe that it is a Munro. Binnein Mor is a magnificent peak crowning a graceful ridge and its the highest of the Mamore’s. In combination with its rocky neighbour Na Gruagaichean it gives a superb ridge walk. We followed this ridge, dropping slightly to a bealach before ascending a fine ridge to reach the summit of Na Gruagaichean our final Munroe of the day, the perfect place to stop and have my tomato soup, while we chatted to a couple with a black lab,

            

    The decent back down towards the path was steep and boggy not marked and seemed to be heading too far towards Mamore lodge for my liking but bob felt sure he had the right way which in fairness to him he did! we were of the boggy steep stuff and back at the decent paths before long and following them down through the woods where we had to skirt a felled tree over the path. once nearly back at the car park I asked bob and Sheila if they had seen the via ferrata route at the grey mare’s tail ? which they hadn’t so we went along and had a look around, before our nine and a half hours trek was completed at the car park, it had been an excellent day Sheila slept on the drive home and I left my mobile phone in bobs car overnight by mistake we were that tired

                That was me now completed another hill group the mamores now completed it had only taken me 20 years from my first Mamore to the last!