Hot and bothered on a scorching hot day....Beinn a Bheithir the mountain with 3 names

Hills: Sgorr Dhearg (Red Peak) (1024m), Sgorr Dhonuill (1001m), aka Beinn a'Bheithir
Type: Munros x 2

After yesterdays enjoyable walk in the sun, the forecast today was for another hot one. This is a tough walk at the best of times but with the added heat factor I was both looking forward to it and apprehensive, not without foundation as it turned out.
Beinn a'Bheithir is the mountain and dramatically named The Hill of the Thunderbolt. The mountain has two distinct peaks hence the double Munro status. 
This is an excellent ridge walk, once you get there, but it is from sea level with steep gradients throughout so you get to climb every metre of it.
We were a small group so we made the extremely wise decision to leave a couple of cars at the golf course thus reducing our final walk by 3-4km.

Grassy ascent, Sgorr Bhan to left, still more to climb after that

We started from the visitor centre in Ballachullish and headed to the school and then the grassy field that starts this route via the Schoolhouse Ridge. On the lower slopes there are no tracks, wander through a field, thankfully without its livestock and then the fun begins. Walkhighlands describes this section as 'tough and exhausting', throw in the heat and I have no issues with that description. Already the humidity was very high and I was sweating buckets, this was serious hard work and we had only begun.

Breather time, The Pap of Glencoe looking pointed and below us already

Every time I looked up there seemed to be a long way to go and when you looked back the views showed how high you had climbed and quickly.
Relief when we reached a fence where there should be a track of sorts. A slightly lowered section of wire suggested this was the crossing and we did indeed find a boggy series of steps which eventually became a stony path on a more gentle route but I was not feeling good at all which sadly continued all walk so a very tough day. A tummy upset before the walk didn't help and I am sure that on these initial stages I went into my red zone too quickly and just could not get the energy back on this unrelenting ascent.

Looking down the Schoolhouse ridge to Loch Leven. Looks high but another 200m of ascent to go!

From a plateau there are excellent views back down and time for a short rest. As we break an immature peregrine falcon glides across at eye level, stunning. 

Schoolhouse Ridge ahead, this green bit the only flat section of the ascent

But it is the ridge ahead that now takes the eye. This becomes an on off scree walk, rough on the feet, rocks sliding underfoot and never-ending. With relief a small cairn is reached but this is just Sgorr Bhan, a Munro top and tempered by the knowledge that the next ascending ridge is the climb to Sgorr Dhearg. 

Finally Sgorr Dhearg top ahead, track can be seen on the left

Some excellent views at times but not for long. Frustratingly there is a small descent before the seemingly long haul up to the ruined trig and a summit bagged. Second frustration was that the cloud had descended so we could not see the way ahead to Munro number two.
Another awkward stony descent, dropping almost 300 metres, did not do my morale much good.

Other side of Sgorr Dhearg, almost 300m descent

We stopped on the Bealach for lunch and it was honest decision time. Fatigue and fluids the consideration. Our plan A had been to continue up Dhonuill and then over another ridge to descend down a scree slope from there but that made it a much longer walk. Most of the group were also now concerned about fluids, both the amount we were losing and the quantity we had left. Added to that the fatigue factor, me right up there. So decision made to do Munro two and return to this point and head down from here knowing there was a burn alongside the track.

Sgurr Dhonuill ahead, of course it is the bit hidden in the cloud

Now, like most people we have had the odd bad day on the hills but my breathing was really struggling and my head had pressured with lots of echoing noises, really weird. That red zone deficit factor had kicked in. Initially I felt good again but about two thirds of the way up I thought I was going to have to abandon this ascent. I have never failed to get to the top of a hill but I feared this was going to be the one. However, even though I say it myself with real grit and determination I plodded on to the summit. 

That's the exposed scrambly bit to the top

The top from below is a proper cone, a pointed top, which looks daunting. It doesn't help that the path disappears and scrambling is required for a short section and at times the path is exposed. Strangely I felt better on the scramble than the plod. Once the top is reached it is surprisingly large open space and again for us the on off clouds had descended so yet another no summit view. Anyway, realised later I had been too knackered to take a snap. Two girls appeared with mini dogs having scrambled up the scree slopes we had originally planned to descend, they looked far too fresh, oh to be young!!
The heat and humidity was still oppressive and about to go up several notches as we descended into the glen. When we got to the cold water we had  longed for that was some of the pressure off. A very welcome hatful of ice cold water was poured over my head, initial shock but huge relief. The stuff in the bottle, delicious.
This descent is pretty boggy and heads to a deforested section which initially looks like big trouble. The track goes high, more climbing, them the unseen path meanders through the tree debris before entering the trees with the odd direction marker to stop you wandering about forest tracks for ever. Initially a welcome coolness in the trees but the humidity regained control, boy oh boy, I have never sweated so much on a walk. It would have been interesting to have been weighed before and after, a few kilos gone for sure.

The descent keeping high of the deforested zone for most of it.

A long wooded section and then a nice surprise as there were the cars sooner than expected.
Afterwards I read Cameron McNeish's route and he advocates coming up our descent then up one, down again and up the other, definitely an easier trip.
Yesterday I felt great and today I felt absolutely out of sorts for whatever reason. That was a hard, hard day. With reflection I will be proud of it but not right now.

Wildlife: Peregrine falcon; Meadow Pipit; Meadow Brown; Small White
Ascent: 1474m
Distance: 13.5km
Time: 7.25m