Ben Alder

Sunday 3rd June 2012

At the start of this day the weather was so gorgeous with clear blue skies and bright sunshine that I was looking forward to another fantastic walk in the Loch Ossian area as my walking companion and I set off alongside the southern shore of Loch Ossian to the Corrour Shooting Lodge at the eastern end of the loch. There are a lot of rhododendrons near the lodge with various colours and shapes and some with quite a strong smell, but we were in no mood to linger as we passed the shooting lodge, crossed the river and went completely the wrong way. Instead of turning right immediately after the bridge we continued along the landrover track as it climbed up the hillside. Eventually my companion realised we were going the wrong way (I knew he’d come in handy eventually!), so we dropped back down to the river and found the path that follows the river upstream. The Uisge Labhair joins the River Ossian just before Corrour Shooting Lodge, and we followed it up the wild, deserted valley for what seemed like forever.

Our goal was Ben Alder, one of the most remote mountains in Scotland, so a long walk-in was always going to be needed just to get to the foot of it, even though from Loch Ossian Youth Hostel it doesn’t seem to be that far away. Ben Alder is one of the mountains that can be seen from the hostel either side of the col at the head of the valley above Loch Ossian. The pass between the mountains doesn’t look too far away, but it is ten miles away and took us over three hours to walk all the way to the head of the valley at Bealach Dubh. In order to get there we had to cross the river as the path we were on didn’t seem to be going all the way up to the col, so we had to climb tough heather-covered slopes to reach an excellent path that goes through the pass on its way to Benalder Cottage, on the shore of Loch Ericht. This path was a joy to walk along and took us up to the top of the pass, Bealach Dubh, where the wind was blowing a gale and dark clouds had come over spoiling the good weather that we had started the day with. Fortunately there were still stunning views back down the valley all the way to Loch Ossian and east through the pass across the Ben Alder Forest. From the windy pass we climbed the southern slopes onto the small hill of Meall an t-Slugain and up the stony slopes of Coire Labhair and Coire na h-Eiginn.

We were soon in the clouds and as we set our compasses for the summit the weather threw a surprise at us: it started snowing. I couldn’t help thinking ‘four seasons in one day’, and started humming Crowded House songs. It is quite fun trying to go up a high mountain in bad weather, when it’s sleeting, and hailing, and snowing, and you can’t see a thing, especially if you are prepared for the weather and know what to do. Eventually we reached the big summit cairn and found that despite claims that Ben Alder is one of the least frequented mountains in Scotland (due to its remoteness) we saw quite a lot of people coming and going as we had lunch. We were told that the bothy on the other side of the pass had been packed the previous night with many more people camped around about. After we had been at the summit for a while the clouds cleared and gave us the opportunity to see the stunning views that this mountain has to offer, especially the awesome crags that line along its eastern edge. My companion and I had come up from the west which is arguably the dullest side of the mountain (every mountain has a dull side). An approach via Culra bothy would have taken in the ridges of the Long Leachas, and the Short Leachas, routes that I’m sure would have been delicious, if I’d taken them.

After tiring of the stunning views and the ever-changing weather we set a westerly direction on our compasses and crossed the broad summit plateau with views towards Loch Ossian ahead of us. A steep descent down the broad grassy slopes brought us back to the Benalder Cottage path near to Bealach Cumhann. Reluctantly we crossed the excellent path and descended the steep heather-filled slopes back down into the valley where we crossed the river and rejoined the path that would take us all the way back to Loch Ossian. This is a good, narrow path but seemed to be endless through a never-changing scenery, so I was never really able to enjoy it. After passing the point where we’d joined this path on our outward journey we reached some nice waterfalls and since the weather had come good again we sat beside the river and took in the wonderful surroundings. When you are on your way up a mountain you’re in less of a mood to appreciate valley-bottom scenes like this as your eyes are only on the mountain you’re heading for, but now that we’d been to the top of the mountain we were in a better frame of mind to just relax and enjoy the scenery. When we reached Corrour Shooting Lodge my companion decided that he wasn’t ready to go back just yet and declared that he was going to climb the stupendously dull Munro to the north of Loch Ossian: Beinn na Lap. I didn’t feel the need so I let him go off on his own.

Slowly I walked along the north shore track of Loch Ossian taking my time and enjoying my surroundings until I eventually reached the youth hostel at the other end of the loch. Justin eventually turned up two hours after me having climbed all the way over Beinn na Lap. This did make me wonder what I would have done if he hadn’t turned up. Would I have had to call out mountain rescue for him, or gone looking for him myself? As someone who usually walks on his own this was new territory for me and made me start to worry. Thankfully he did eventually turn up. This was not a great walk mainly due to the very long, dull walk along the valley either way; I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised my companion wanted to do something else! My original plan for my stay at Loch Ossian was to do a second walk up to Bealach Dubh and go up the hills to the north of the pass but it’s bad enough doing that walk once, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it twice. Ben Alder is not a bad mountain and I enjoyed my time on its slopes, but its best side is to the east, and I was just on the wrong side.