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Another Thursday, another big hill day, another sweatfest… I really tried to get up and out of the house early, and made good time as far as Spean Bridge, beyond which roadworks, tourist traffic and broken down caravans slowed the A82 to a crawl, so after the usual kit-faff it was almost 11 when I started walking, slathered with sun-cream and laden with liquid.
Learning my lesson from last week’s wilting I carried an extra bidon and drank a full litre before setting off: this no doubt contributed to the climb up Meall a' Bhùiridh being the sweatiest hour of my life, but proved to be just about enough to last me through the day. The first steep section of path up under the chairlift is well signed, but once I emerged onto the flatter ground it wasn’t clear which was the best route so I followed the access road up and round to the left a bit, before cutting a corner and rejoining the road as it headed towards the ski-club hut. There may be a better path beyond this but I got impatient and turned left before the hut, heading straight up the hill and keeping the ski-tow on my right. The terrain was ok – dry ground and rocks - but the best feature was the large stag at about 950m, which just moved 20m to the west and watched me go by.
- Misty mountains away to the south
There was a group of 3 walkers at the summit; we briefly discussed plans and the route to Creise. Amazingly, despite (or maybe because of) the weather I only saw 3 others (two on the way to Creise, the other just beyond Stob Ghabhar) until I reached the West Highland Way. Refuelled and snapped a few pics of the fantastic 360 views (a day-long theme) then picked my way down the west ridge. The route up to the Creise ridge looks daunting from Meall a' Bhùiridh but once you get there it’s a straightforward and (dare I say it) fun 10 minute staircase.
- Creise - the route up (on the far left) is nowhere near as steep as it looks from Meall a' Bhùiridh
Even better, once on the ridge there was a definite and very welcome breeze, and it’s mostly flat to the summit, where I took a few more pics and started sizing up the long trek south to Stob Ghabhar.
- Meall a' Bhùiridh from Creise
- Clach Leathad & Stob Ghabhar
On the map much of this looks fairly flat and I’d been planning dog-trotting some of it but in reality the terrain is rocky and I was quite warm enough already. I made good time to Clach Leathad anyway and set off down the broad ridge. Unfortunately the map was stashed away, and navigating on sight, I headed straight off the nose of the ridge and had to traverse 150m right (ENE) to find manageable ground for the descent to the Bealach Fuar-chathaidh.
- Looking back at the Clach Leathad descent from the Aonach Mor
Not sure if there’s a path here - I didn’t find one but that could just be me – or indeed on most of the route towards and then along the Aonach Mor to Stob Ghabhar. I’m not a fan of describing the highlands as wild land or wilderness: that’s an urban fantasy airbrushing out centuries of human occupation and management, but the lack of paths reinforces the impression of remoteness out here.
- Aonach Mor
It’s a steady climb along the Aonach Mor, with a final steeper section to the summit of Stob Ghabhar – more pics and some refuelling - then a change of style on the Aonach Eagach (interestingly narrow and disappointingly short) before the loose and rather horrible descent northwards off the ridge.
- Aonach Eagach, with descent route to the left
Compared to the other 3 Munros, Stob a'Choire Odhair looks like a bit of an afterthought but it’s still ~280m back up from the col which was quite enough for me by this stage.
- Stob a'Choire Odhair
The N ridge didn’t look very inviting so I headed SE towards the subsidiary top of Beinn Toaig, traversing to avoid going right to the top and yomping down the NW ridge, mostly gentle and grassy with a few steeper steps, and then out across the moor to meet the WHW just north of the Lochan Mhic Pheadair Ruaidh. Don’t think I’d registered how much the WHW climbs over the next few km so again my dog-trotting plans were mostly shelved (and tbh the heat was finally beginning to get to me) until I reached the crest, finally jogging the last downhill 2km in a vain attempt to get back to the car in under 6 hours.