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Ben More was my second Munro. Aged 15 with my mother we parked at its foot on the A85, outside Crianlarich. climbed the interminable grass slopes to the summit and returned. Then about 14 years ago in order to do Stobinian and its two munro tops, I followed Storer's route in "100 best routes on Scottish mountains" except that I did it in reverse.
Storer's Schematic mapI remember exiting the forest at a small gate and traversing Right almost horizontally to the foot of the NE ridge climbing it to Ben More and continuing over Stobinian and round the rim of Coire before descending back to the forest gate. It all worked very well
As I had not done a serious hill all year, I decide to try and repeat this - or at least get as far as Ben More, but the problems - as with all walks involving commercial forests - are :-
(a) that they're never the same as they were last time and
(b) The OS maps are totally out of date.
I set out from the Standard starting point, about 10.am, Went through the gate and took the L turn signed "Hill access"
Views along the track - It was pretty soggy - I don't think vehicles come this way any moreThe track heads almost due South and looks back to Meall Glas and Ben Cheataich (L) and Sgiath Chuill (R)The vehicle track ends at a bridge over a side stream but a footpath continues up the hill And crosses a big vehicle track: I noted that this was probably an easier way home: Ben Challuim on the L I thinkFirst view of Ben MoreOut of the trees - both hills visible - the path ended at another vehicle trackThis went through an open gate, headed L and forked about 50m before the river - the Allt Coire ChaorachI took the R fork which headed round towards the North But stopped at a locked gate None of this is on on the OS map which does however show a footpath heading towards the summit from somewhere around here. I couldn't find it - and anyway I didn't imagine it would be any less boggy than the rest of the hillside.
So I headed up the hillside beside the fence, but soon came to a stile.What should I do? Did I really want to traverse further when I was already heading directly towards the summit.? The next few hundred metres didn't look pleasant - they weren't
- but I decided to keep following the outside of the fence - which actually crossses the NE ridge around the 700m mark.
Looking back to the exit from the forest - just R of centreThe going was slow,but I eventually reached a flattening where the fence turned L and then after about 50m R again. This depression was the aptly named Coire ChlachI descended very slighly to the Allt Coire Chlach where I emptied my water bottle and refilled it: who wants to drink chlorinated tapwater when this is available? Instead of continuing up to the ridge, I decided to climb out of the Corrie, traverse above the row of"clachans" and climb the obvious grassy slope to reach the ridge just before the final ascent to the summit.
The Ben Lawers group and Loch Tay from hereLooking up the slope (very foreshortened). It looked a long way and I was feeling pretty whacked, but I had a rest and chewed up a few of the dextrose tablets that I always keep in my sack. I find them invaluable at times like thisI started zig-zagging as the slope was quite steep, but the dextrose kicked in and I was on the ridge quite quickly and on up the easy angled slopes to the top.
Looking down the ridge: I saw two figures belowLooking back down into the corrie - actually taken on the descentI was surprised how faint the footpath was but it traverses R to outflank this steepeningEasy slopes now to the top - where there were hoards of peopleViews from the summitThe views are magnificent, but the light had turned rather flat and the far hills were mostly just silhouettes
Zoomed view down to Ben Lawers and Loch TayLooking across Coire Chaorach to the Munro top of Stob Creagach with Ben Ledi behind: Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin on the LStobinianZoomed - Stob a' Choin, and Ben Tulaichean with Ben Lomond behindStob Garbh in the L foreground with An Casteal behind it - slightly R. In the distance the Arrochar Alps with flat-topped Ben Narnain on the LBen Lui, Cruachan, Ben a' Chochuill and Ben EunaichLooking up Strath Fillan: Ben Starav on the L horizon, Bidean on the R: Meall Odhar in R foregroundAmazing how the Ben always stands out: Ben Challium in front and bulky Beinn Dorain in the shadeThe couple behind me arrived and said they were going to head down to the Stobinian col and descend the Coire, but I decided to go back down the ridge and see if I could descend directly into the forest.
Down the ridge from just below the summitSchiehallionThe ridge remains quite narrow and then drops quite sharply: beyond the nose of Sron nam Forsairean - looking back from below I continued downhill towards the forest : there was a big wooden stile around the 700m mark , but just above this the fence had collapsed and I could walk over it. The ground continued to steepen, but I could see the main track with only 2 -300m of harvested woodland in between
Evening view North as I approached the forest edgeLooking back up from the track: the brash on the short cleared section was particularly bad and covered in a thick layer of what I think is called "Scotch moss" - Sagina Subulata. It took a little while to negotiate but once down I headed L and returned quickly to the carStorer says that the circuit of Coire Chaorach is much the best way to do these two hills and I have to agree, although the inaccuracy of the map is a nuisance: the problem with the standard way - apart from the unrelenting steepness of the ascent - is that it misses out Stobinians two munro tops