Munro Diary: 176, 177. Beinn Achaladair (94), Beinn a'Creachain (61) (P600 32). 30/04/2016

A great afternoon in the hills. Having been travelling in the morning, we couldn't start before 1.20pm, but this walk filled the gap between then and dinner nicely.

We started by heading south from the car park to the bealach with the Bridge of Orchy hills. According to one walker, we could have climbed up the side of the ridge, but it was still pretty snowy, so we thought the longer route was more prudent. It did at least mean that the climbing wasn't too steep and that the mist had almost cleared when we reached the summit. The wind was strong and there were a few showers, but fortunately we were able to turn our backs to them as we made our way along the ridge to Beinn a'Creachain.

There was a fair amount of reascent between the two, but we had made good time. From here we had a surprisingly wintry panorama of hills as far as the eye could see. The snow wasn't a problem and in fact it aided our descent in a couple of places. I have to say that the initial descent to the railway was one of the most gentle I can remember. Instead of the hard jarring rocks that can be found on a number of munros, we had a mixture of glissading and striding down soft springy grass. Unfortunately, once the railway had been passed and the river forded, we still had nearly three miles of track back to the car just to make sure the joints didn't get away without a little bone-jarring.