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Cruach Ardrain Beinn Tulaichean Map I picked up Andrew and his son, Chris, from Ramsbottom and drove to Crianlarich on the Saturday, staying at the B&B just outside town on the Killin road. Sunday was a good day, weatherwise, dry with sunny patches, good visibility and little wind. The start of the walk is from the A82, just opposite the last, lone cottage on the way south. We set off from there at 9.40 and, after crossing the railway line by the bridge, followed a path through a small clearing and up through the forest. The track here was very muddy, boggy and dark, hemmed in as it was by trees, but eventually we managed to break free onto Grey Height, which is the hillock at the end of Cruach Ardrain's NW ridge. Continuing along the ridge to Meall Dhamh (814m) there was plenty of snow on the ground by now but the weather was clear and dry and there were good views back towards Crianlarich and Tyndrum. After a hard slog up the final steep stages of the snowy slope we reached the top of Cruach Ardrain at 1.10 pm. That was more than an hour longer than the guide book reckoned it should take us, but maybe that was because of the snow.
At the top we met a girl on her own - dark haired, 28-ish, cold-sore on her lip - and got her to take our photo. She had crampons on and as there was a lot of snow I thought it was time to try mine out. I'd bought them a year earlier and never worn them yet but had decided to bring them along despite some mocking scepticism from certain quarters. I had trouble fitting them at first until Chris pointed out that I was putting them on back to front. After that it was easier and once they were on they were great - a colossal improvement in grip and on icy stretches it was like having velcro on your feet. Brilliant, well done Grivel. The girl had gone on ahead but a bloke turned up now and asked if he could tag along with us - his wife had turned back and I think he was a bit nervous of being on his own in the snow. He introduced himself as Stash - about 50, grey haired, gave me the probably false impression of being of Eastern European origin although he spoke with an English accent. Told us he lived in Glasgow and offered to put us up for the night if we were ever passing through. Together we filed back along the summit ridge from the cairn and then bore left, descending in a southerly direction towards Beinn Tulaichean.
There was no difficulty in descending to the bealach, crampons working well, and from there it was a straightforward walk over to Beinn Tulaichean and an easy ascent to the summit (2.25) We met the girl again, coming back down - a hardy lass.
There was a bit of light cloud around now and it even did a bit of snow for a while. Not much though. On the return we didn't want to have to reascend Cruach Ardrain so instead we returned to the bealach then bore left, aiming for the col between Cruach Ardrain and Stob Glas. There were no difficulties with this route and once over the col we were able to descend into a grassy, bowl-like valley-end, the start of the Coire Earb (a route we'd taken to Beinn a Chroin a couple of years previously). Whilst in the valley Stash fell into the river and got quite wet - it seemed to take him ages to get back on his feet but he was ok and took it well. After that it was an easy return to the A82 and we were back at the car by 5.20. That night we drove to Comrie and got B&B at Mossgiel House (£25). Then after a nice roast veg risotto at the Royal Hotel we played a few games of pool in the Ancaster Arms, including a couple of doubles matches against the locals. I think the second game was because by some fluke Chris and myself managed to beat the local hustler and he then had to have a rematch to salvage his pride - this time I only visited the table twice.
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