Beinn Odhar

For anyone lucky enough to travel north via the A82 Glasgow to Inverness road or aboard the scenic Glasgow to Fort William train, the mountain of Beinn Odhar will be a familiar sight as you climb north out of the village of Tyndrum, which stands proudly guarding the entrance to Glen Auch. The railway/A82 runs a wee bit too close to appreciate this hill's graceful form so it is best viewed whilst travelling south from the Bridge of Orchy, as seen in our photograph.

Beinn Odhar is a mountain that has been passed by us on numerous occasions as it has by thousands of commuters on a daily basis. It is also one that very few have attempted to climb. At a height of 901 metres (2956 feet) it fails to make Munro status (mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet ) by just 13 metres or 44 feet, thus making it the 18th highest Corbett (peaks in Scotland between 2,500 and 3,000 feet). Its failure though to achieve Munro status ensures a certain amount of solitude whilst climbing.
(In Scottish moutaineering circles, the majority of climbers attempt to ‘Bag a Munro’ whilst out climbing and anything below 3000 ft is regarded as not worthy of consideration.)

The anticipated weather conditions prove woefully wrong in their prediction as we park the car at the foot of the hill, 2.5 miles north of Tyndrum. A strong head on wind laced with sleet makes the lower part of the climb an unwelcome slog through boggy ground. We then find ourselves climbing or sliding up sheer ice where it is necessary to stamp the feet into the ground in order not to slide back down the mountain side. After quite a few slips and at one point Emma hanging onto dear life to a rickety old fence, to stop from blowing away, we reach a more sheltered landing. This has been a new experience for both of us and we feel that we have now progressed into the professional climbers club! Later we achieve considerable height and find that the wind/sleet sleet conditions have subsided and a beautiful vista over the Tyndrum and the surrounding hills has opened up.
Ahead of us lies the snow line at about 800 feet and a summit which proves to be false with a frozen unnamed Lochan nestling in its heart.

Tackling the final rise to the true summit the sun appears and warms our chilled extremities before we ascend the final plateau where the wind speed rises dramatically as the cairn marking the hills summit at 2956 feet.
Capturing a panoramic shot in such strong wind speeds proves to be a dangerous endeavor as the chill factor exerts extreme frostbite symptoms to the finger tips within 30 seconds of the removal of our gloves.

With our panoramic of the neighbouring Beinn Dorain captured we begin our descent from the summit in brilliant sunshine via the secluded south east flank with the Tyndrum Hills in our immediate horizon. The snow which is now disappearing rapidly provides a safe and comfortable foot bed as we bound down the hill at a leisurely pace and make our way back to the car 4 hours after our departure.