Beinn Odhar June 2010

I suppose you could call Beinn Odhar the little brother of Ben Dorain as there isnt a drastic height difference beteween them. This is another mountain (A Corbett by just 13 metres), that we all bomb past on the A82 on the way to the giants in Glen Coe. Now that i've climbed this one, I think we should all show it a bit more respect. You start at the Tourist information Car Park in Tyndrum. Best not to Park in the Green Welly Car park as you might get told off. We met up at the Welly for breakfast (Me, Jim and John). I had the full Scottish but my collegues are lightweights and opted for a cup of Tea and a bun!!

Its a nice walk intowards Odhar, along the West Highland way route for around 2km. You reach a Fence and gate and from here you leave the WHW and go up. You reach a simple memorial stone a few hundred metres from the gate. It's a memoral to a 19 year old who 'loved the highlands'. It was here that John decided to let us carry on up and he would walk along the WHW to Bridge of Orchy and back. It quickly becomes very steep and rocky, with no paths to follow.

The views are amazing though. We could identify mountains across to Ben Oss and Lui, over to the Crainlarich hills including Ben More and Stob binnein. Ben Starav and Loch Etive could be seen, as could the mountains of Glen Coe. It was very hot and for most of the accent there was no breeze. Quite by accident we came across a huge gash in the mountain side, which led us down into a cave. Unfortunately we hadn't brought torches so couldnt explore. We then reached a small plateau on which was a lovely shallow lochan, a perfect wild camping site. The final haul up to the summit is tough going, through boulder fields on very steep terrain. But finally as you near the summit you see the tip of Ben Dorain sticking up, letting you know you dont have far to go. Theres a hugh cairn on the summit of Odhar and the most spectacular views all around you.

We had planned to decend via Meall Buidhe but the midges were out in force and opted to decent to Lochan Choire Dhuidh and then down through the rock river bed of Choire Dhuidh. With us being in the middle of a long dry spell it was safe to navigate this.

 It turned out to be the best part of the day (as you will seee from the photos). It was a very steep decent, first through grassy meadows then razor edged banks and then onto the rocky floor of the now dry river  bed.

We passed a few small pools and a couple of trickling waterfalls until we rejoined the WHW at the railway bridge where we started out climb 4 hours earlier.