Munros + Corbetts - 2009
13 December 2009 .......... Beinn a Chrulaiste
After a month of pretty wet weather, a colder drier spell moved in, and MWIS was promising a greater than 90% chance of clear tops.
December 13`th is one of the 3-4 days that have the earliest sunsets of the year, so a good day to do something really short. So back to Glencoe, to do Beinn a Chrulaiste - this is a corbett at the east end of Glencoe, just behind the King`s House Hotel.
You can do it from either end, I did it from the small road behind the King`s House Hotel - it was a good job that there had been a few days of hard frost, as most of the bog was frozen. It would have been an incredibly wet experience crossing the bog without the frost. In wet weather, it might well be better to do it from the west end, as it looks as if you would start climbing sooner.
Once across the bog, and onto the steeper slope, all the frost and ice was gone, and the climb up was all green.
It is a bit isolated from other hills, so the view from the top is good in every direction. Looking eastwards, this not very inspiring picture shows the effect of the temperature inversion - the great flat of Rannoch Moor is completely frost bound, but the side of Meall Bhalach is quite green.
I am not sure if it was the lighting, or if they were a bit too close, but most of the Glencoe mountains just didn`t look good in photographs at all. Looking WNW, there`s the corbett, Garbh Bheinn, that I did a month before in cloud.
Somewhat surprisingly, there was a good view of the rocky lump of the corbett Sgurr Innse, dwarfed on either side by the Grey Corries, and the twin munros Stob Coire Easain and Stop a Choire Mheadhoin. In the foreground on the left, is the corbett Glas Bheinn, which I haven`t done yet.
The most stunning view was of the huge mass of Ben Nevis, standing head and shoulders above the rest of the world. I think that what we are seeing here is Ben Nevis on the left, Carn More Dearg in the middle, and then Aonach Beag and Aonach Mor on the right - with the Mamores in front of them.
The best view looking south was when I was back down at the roadside, and there was a really nice sunset, I could see a bit of it looking down Glen Etive. It wasn`t nearly as dark as this photo suggests, it was sort of half dark, but the sky was very bright, and that`s what auto-exposure does. But it was a nice end to a rather short day.
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