Binnein Beag, 17th April 2010

For almost three years, my Munro list has been at a standstill. It’s not for lack of trying; I’ve been out a lot on the hills, but the weather has been unpredictable and the recent winter was simply downright unsafe, especially with my lack of winter walking experience. Binnein Beag in the Mamores has been my target a few times, but it’s remote and requires a long walk in. However, on Saturday I finally managed to get enough time to get to Kinlochleven and do the walk.

I headed off from Glasgow at 0715, and met up with Toezi, Poochy, Speccy and Wilco at the Bridge of Orchy car park. We convoyed up to Kinlochleven at commenced the usual, but slightly more extended faff to prepare all the gear.

The weather was a little showery at this point and not too cold, but we geared up for snow anyway. We set off North East up the path slightly South of the An Cumhann track and joined the Land Rover track, heading East to Loch Eilde Mor. Every time we stopped, the sun would come out, but as soon as we started again, the cold rainy squalls would come from the North West once more.

Around 1230 we stopped just South of Coire an Lochain for a short lunch before heading North. The Lochain looked positively arctic with the remains of the winter ice still floating around on the surface and being blown around by the wind. It was a genuinely awe inspiring sight, especially in the valley with some of Scotlands highest peaks all around.

As we headed further North the showers became heavier, colder and more frequent. The gloves were on. The sight of the remaining 2km or so was depressing especially as we had to lose 200m to regain another 400m in height. The only thing to do was to press on. We reached a smaller lochan and from there it was 200m of rocky ascent to the summit. We made the summit around 1420, but all were a little wet and bedraggled by this stage, especially Poochy who had come without her coat.

We followed our footsteps back to a slope we had descended to save time on the outward journey, but then followed a more distinct path from there to Coire an Lochain and back to the Land Rover track, while the squally showers blew right in our faces.

My feet were aching – someone remind me to get insoles for my boots – and the chest infection I had picked up the week before left me feeling a bit breathless at times, but at 5.30 we arrived back at the car and got changed. A swift chippy in Kinlochleven and then off to the Kingy for a night on the beer with our old pal Naomi.

83 down – 200 to go!

I also recorded the route using the SMap application from Sanoodi on the works’ Blackberry, which has the longest battery life – ideal for any GPS app, so you can see that here:

http://www.sanoodi.com/routes/binnein-beag-264914/

As ever, I do recommend Sanoodi, but it’s interpretation of the route here is a bit ropy at best. I’ve looked at the KML it produces in Google Earth and it looks absolutely fine. The actual readout on my phone said that it was a 17.88km walk, but the web app says 20 miles. Quite how it’s working this out is a bit of a mystery to me, but as I say – an excellent free piece of software.