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2021 was a big damp squib in the end, in so many ways. Lockdown 3 dragged on into April, then came the Delta Variant etc., and unfortunately I only had a single day bagging Munros (there were some Grahams in May, and a bonus Ben Ledi climb just before Omicron brought the last bad phase of the pandemic). But what a day.
The Lawers Hotel asks for a £5 fee for hillwalkers to park (I think this *might* be waived if you get something at the hotel afterwards, but I was heading straight home anyway). There were only one or two spaces when I arrived at 10:45am: there seemed to be an overspill park, but I wasn't 100% sure if that belonged to the hotel and didn't want to take my chances...
The Lawers Munros are very shy and retiring from the hotel, which is surprising since you can see them from parts of the Central Belt.
The route was very obvious in the early going, with a couple of big signs pointing the way.
Finally the path broke out of the forest near the shielings.
I headed alongside the wee valley on the path, with the sun still beating down at this point.
Unfortunately I was enjoying the sunshine so much that I headed a bit too far into this valley...
the actual route up Meall Greigh should break off to the right - maybe just before you properly get into the valley.
I headed up a little bit of steep ground and found a faint path heading up towards Sròn Mhòr.
The route was fairly obvious from here on in, with the Lawers range finally appearing to the left.
Loch Tay looking fine.
After the steep climb up Sròn Mhòr, the gradient eased off for the last climb to Meall Greigh.
Finally! Only my 3rd Munro since the pandemic began, but hopefully the numbers would be going up a bit more today.
The rest of the Lawers range looking, arm, absolutely miles away from here.
There's a small cairn at the 993 summit (don't think it could ever be confused with the beast of a cairn at the 1001 summit), then a gentle descent eventually picks up a fence heading towards Meall Garbh,
The view back towards Meall Greigh from the climb up Meall Garbh. It was clouding over now, but true to the forecast the clouds were staying high and not looking too threatening.
Ben Lawers appeared again at the 1110m top just before the true summit of Meall Garbh. The path was good quality and obvious by now.
Aha! Time for the main event. An Stuc appeared over the summit of Meall Garbh. The weather was holding up fine, so I would be able to attempt the next bit.
When I got down to the col it looked a little daunting: just the way it was...kind of...leering over me?
But the path is obvious. There's a lot of scrambling, but it just needed a bit of extra care.
I don't really know when scrambling officially becomes rock climbing? WalkHighlands officially calls the descent from Meall nan Tarmachan a Grade 1 rock climb, but I don't think they do for this one. I'd say this is tougher, but maybe that's just because of the length of it (maybe there are one or two specific points on Tarmachan that are tougher than this). I don't think I folded the walking poles away for this: I just kind of held them to the side...
Hooray! My camera says it was 22 minutes from the col to the end of the scramble, and the summit is just beyond that.
It's great to be up any hills, considering everything that's happened, but An Stuc is one of the best.
Some people head over the Top of Creag an Fhithich to the East ridge of Lawers, but I thought that would be pushing my luck a bit.
And now, finally, after skirting around it for the whole day, I found Lochan nan Cat.
It was a great feeling to reach this place. It's so high, and yet hidden away between the hills, that I could hardly see it when I climbed Ben Lawers in 2016. I suddenly realised that this was almost certainly the only time I would ever be able to properly see it. There was something nice about that: kind of like the Lost Valley near Glencoe, a proper hidden gem.
The walls of the corrie tower over the lochan.
I don't do meditation, but if I did, I'd probably do it here.
After about 15-20 minutes I tore myself away and back to the path.
This bit went on a bit long, and the path was faint, but at least it was steadily downhill now.
Already the lochan was hidden from view, probably never to be seen again.
A guy was waiting to talk to me near the dam (the first human I'd seen for a while). I wondered if it was going to be something to do with deer stalking, but I think he asked something about camping? I said there might be good flattish ground up near the lochan, as long as he didn't camp right next to the thing (might get damp?)
There's a good track from the dam, but after only a few minutes you have to branch off at this rock. Luckily the path is very pleasant, heading back into the valley I accidentally headed into all those hours ago.
And after crossing the wee bridge, that was pretty much it. The route joined up with the outward route and back down through the woods to Lawers. I was pretty exhausted by the time I reached the road, and ended up going a few seconds over my rough target of eight hours (well it rounds down to eight hours...kind of). But that was including a big stop at the Lochan nan Cat, as I knew I would never be back there so wanted to savour it.
It would be my only day climbing Munros in 2021, but one is a lot, lot, lot better than zero...
