Details of a walk I did last Sunday to Ben Donich and The Brack near
Arrochar:
It was a sunny morning with a strong cold wind when we set off from the
Rest and Be Thankful car park on the A83 Arrochar to Inveraray Road
with the intention of climbing Ben Donich and The Brack.
A short walk along the B828 Lochgoilhead Road took us to a forest
track, where there is actually a new parking area for those climbing
these hills. There was also signposts directing walkers to a new but
steep path which took us above the tree line to a stile.
Once over the stile the ground was a bit icy and higher up we reached
the snow line and beyond that there was lots of drifting snow, some
hard packed snow and some bare patches. Progress had slowed as care
was required and I needed to try and follow the line of the path,
occasionally finding the snow up to my knees. We eventually reached a
section of hard packed snow that couldn't be avoided and here we put on
our crampons. There was also a steep rocky drop before traversing
some boulders and the final climb to the summit trig point.
The early morning sun had disappeared and had been replaced by broken
cloud but the first snow shower of the day could be seen heading in our
direction.
We descended towards the bealach between Ben Donich and The Brack as
the first snow shower arrived. The descent was down some deep snow
fields but we had to avoid some rocky outcrops. We left the snow
covered hillside and eventually reached the bealach followed by the
start of the ascent of The Brack. This was over some easy but wet
vegetation before we reached the snow line again.
Visibility wasn't very good and we worked our way up through various
snow filled gullies until we saw the summit. At this point we were
struck by very strong winds and snow and everything closed in around us
as we reached the summit trig point. Here we put on goggles as we
were now going to be faced with walking directly into the snow and wind
and left the summit cairn following our ascent route.
We had just left the summit when the cloud suddenly cleared and the
snow stopped giving some wonderful views to the west and interesting
views to the east as the snow storm and cloud cleared the Arrochar
mountains.
The descent back to the bealach was uneventful although we did use the
wet snow fields to make a quick descent. At the bealach we followed a
path that took us into the forest and from there we followed a forest
track back to the Lochgoilhead Road and the short walk back to the car
at the Rest and Be Thankful.
Photos can be viewed at:
http://www.caledoniahilltreks.com/galleries/glen_croe_apr06/index.htm
Statistics can be seen at:
http://caledoniahilltreks.blogspot.com
Slainte
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com