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Meall na Teanga

What a weekend................... It started off as one of my whimsical "lets's get away - what about this place?"  Base was the Letterfinlay Lodge Hotel right on the shores of Loch Lochy and a lovely base it was too. We'll be back there. The hills to be climbed, the Loch Lochy Munros of Meall na Teanga and Sron a Choire Ghairbh. It was summer 2002 when I had attempted these two as part of my Great Glen Way wander but only managed Sron a Choire Ghairbh. Well I had done Ben Nevis and walked 23 miles in the two days before - doh!

There are several options of how to approach these hills from Kilfinan, including being able to bag the Corbett Ben Tee. There was much discussion between us. Descision made, as we weren't sure what snow conditions were going to be like we would follow the standard route along the forrest track and take it from there. If things were going well a descent down one of the ridges may be on order.


An old friend had been in touch the day before saying he was going to be in the area so it was nice to see him there when we parked up. I suspect in summer that we wouldn't really be able to park as far along the track as we had due to the private parking signs all around the very closed holiday chalets. It didn't take us too long to get along the track to the turn off up Cam Bhealach, especially with Frank pace setting ;-)


We were still under cloud and I wondered how long it was going to be before we got above it and when we would hit the snowline. Didn't have long to wait as we hit the snow around 300m but the cloud still lingered until nearly 500m. The views when it cleared were stunning

As you can imagine there were lots of "wows" and "OMG", faffing and taking too many photos. Once at the top of Cam Bhealach we were rewarded with more amazing views which just got better and better as we made our way over to Meall na Teanga. There's the lump of Meall Dubh to get round to the next beallach before you get near Meall na Teanga proper. So far the snow had been lots of deep powder but as we got higher we started to hit some harder steeper stuff that meant time for crampons.







The day just kept getting better and better. It was a little longer than we realised to get to the summit cairn of Meall na Teanga but boy the views were so worth it. Apologies for the excessive number of photos but I feel the need to share.







We could have spent the rest of the day up there just taking it all in but we still had another hill to get up. First of all I had to get down this one. Unfortunately the first section coming off the ridge got the better of me. Way out my comfort zone on a steep icy slope and I had a wee slip that thankfully I recovered from. It was enough to give my the colly wobbles so when we were back at the beallch I decided I couldn't face going onto Scron a Choire Gharibh so Steve went off to conquer that on his own. I had a very pleasant wander back and decided to go round to Laggan Locks to catch the sun going down. Not quite in the right place for a classic sunset shot but I do like this one.
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Comments

  1. b23 February 2010 at 22:42

    I particularly like pic 14, I see the Wow and OMG factor in there!

    Good news, holidays for the end of march are now booked from work \o/

    ReplyDelete
  2. PTC23 February 2010 at 23:20

    Alright!

    It's the winter that just keeps on giving :o)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elaina23 February 2010 at 23:58

    Good news BBF, looking forward to catching up with you then if not before :-D

    PTC - let's hope it keeps giving for a wee while longer

    ReplyDelete

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