Munros + Corbetts - 2009
18 April 2009 .......... Ladhar Bheinn
Ladhar Bheinn is the most northerly / westerly of the various munros on Knoydart. So it isn`t the easiest of mountains to get to. It is a long trek from Inverie, but a bit more accessible from the Loch Hourn side. As with my first round of munros, I did it by canoeing across to Knoydart from Corran.
Getting to Corran by car is no mean feat either - it is a very slow road most of the way from Shiel Bridge.
Here`s what it looks like from Corran - not the most striking of mountains from here. Just a small amount of snow highlighting the summit ridge.
My intention was to try and do a horseshoe - climb up Creag Bheithe, then see if I could get straight up the nose of Stob a Chearcaill, then follow the ridge northwesterly to the summit of Ladhar Bheinn. I knew it was gamble - I had no idea whether the nose would be climbable. You can see the nose in the above photograph, beyond the main lump of Ladhar Bheinn.
As I climbed higher and higher up Creag Bheithe, I began to follow a path, which became quite defined, so I became increasingly confident that there would be a route up the nose.
However right at the foot of the nose, the path veered hard off to the left round the side of Stob a Chearcaill, and dissapeared.
So I sat and pondered for a while - should I or shouldn`t I. After studying the nose for a while, I realised that although it was mostly rock faces, the rock faces were not continuous, there were strips of grass interspersed between them, and these strips would provide the way up. So off I went - and I gained quite a lot of height quite quickly by zig-zagging around the rock faces.
However it got worse - and eventually I was faced with a large rock face with a big vertical flake of rock part of the way up it. The only way up was to attempt a sort of layback up a diagonal crack for my feet, whilst hanging onto this flake of rock. Then once past the flake, turn round and squeeze up between the flake and the rock face. All this whilst looking down a very steep drop down to oblivion.
It was a bit scary !
There was another rather nasty bit further up as well, but curiously, I can`t remember anything about it.
Anyway I survived, and set of around the horseshoe. It isn`t the best ridge walk I`ve ever done, it is rather discontinuous, but interesting all the same, and quite steep in places. Here`s what it looks like from down at Barrisdale. The peak of Ladhar Bheinn is on the right at the back in this photo, and the nose of Stob a Chearcaill is on the left, again, at the back .
This is looking up to the summit of Ladhar Bheinn taken from the ridge on my climb up.
Looking back down the horseshoe ridge from the summit of Ladhair Bheinn, with Stob a Chearcaill at the far end of the ridge -
Here`s another view of the nose of Stob a Chearcaill taken on the way back down, and I definitely would not recommend trying to go down the nose, it is difficult enough climbing up it.
If you are ever up Ladhar Bheinn in cloud, it has got three distinct peaks, not sure which one is the official summit.
The trek back down Druim a Choire Odhair was relatively uneventful, except that the lower you go, the worse it gets - the ground gets increasingly wet, boggy, and craggy, and makes for very unpleasant going. And try and avoid the river valley, it is almost impenetrable, because of trees - both upright and fallen, and cliffs. The last few hundred metres were unbelievable - I could see my kayak just below me, but there was no way I could get to it. Eventually I had to climb back up, climb up the side of the hill, and come down a completely different way.
However the weather was fantastic, both for climbing and canoeing, and my mission was accomplished.
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