Lawers 7, returning by bike

[djarvie]

The Lawers circuit would be a long day, so rather than do it all on foot from Glen Lyon in the north, the best option seemed to be to do it from the south using a bike. This would reduce both the walking distance and the height to descend.

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I had walked the Tarmachan ridge the previous day, so took advantage of being there to leave my bike north of Lochan na Lairige that evening. That enabled me to set off on the walk earlier in the morning, rather than having to spend half an hour dropping it off before getting started. One point to note, though, is that I couldn't find anywhere to stash my bike out of sight, so just had to lock it to a signpost by the road.

The forecast was for cloud over the tops in the morning, mostly lifting by the middle of the day. The morning forecast was certainly correct, with the higher parts of the hills being completely hidden in cloud. I parked at the Ben Lawers Hotel and was soon walking through woods following the Lawers Burn, where I saw or heard 3 wrens and a woodpecker. Then, out in open country, the path continued along above the burn.

Lawers Burn, with Meall Greigh hidden in the clouds above right

Initially I didn't take the obvious turn-off to the right towards Meall Greigh since contrary to one of the books, there was no cairn to mark the junction. But the mistake was quickly apparent, and from then on, it was an hour's slog up into the cloud to reach the first top. On the way, a pair of ravens flew past, croaking to each other, and there were quite a few sheep all the way up. The cloud didn't interfere with visibility at ground level, but it was disappointing that there was absolutely no view from the top of Meall Greigh. But it was nice to know that I'd now done more than a third of the total ascent for the day.

Meall Greigh summit, with its cloud view

While at the summit, someone else arrived from the same direction as me. It turned out that he was also doing the circuit of 7, so I was slightly put out when he made clear that he didn't expect to see me again on the walk - how could he be so sure? That doubt was quickly cleared up when he ran off towards the next top. No, we definitely wouldn't be bumping into each other again today.

The path continued on in the cloud towards Meall Garbh. It was a fair distance, a bit boggy in parts, although nothing too bad. Finally when near the top, the cloud began to lift slightly now and again, revealing more sheep on grassy pastures. But disappointingly there was still no view.

Meall Garbh summit

A fairly steep descent brought me to the col below An Stùc.

Looking back at Meall Garbh

I had been feeling a little nervous at the prospect of climbing An Stùc, but I'd been looking forward to what I was sure would be an impressive sight. Unfortunately it wasn't until I was actually at its foot that the cloud started lifting enough to catch a first glimpse of its pyramid towering up above me. By the time I started the climb, the cloud had dispersed enough to let me clearly see its extremely steep face.

An Stùc's north east face

The path allowed the first two thirds to be climbed without difficulty, up to the start of a steep eroded gully from which most of the soil had disappeared. I waited for 10 minutes for two people who were coming down; it didn't seem a good idea to cross paths on that section. The scramble wasn't difficult, since despite the damp conditions the remaining soil was sticky, and there were lots of steps and hand holds in the rocks. For me, the trickiest part was climbing up out of the rocks onto the grassy slope above, where the only thing to hold onto was grass. There was some more steep path, which then flattened out towards the summit.

An Stùc summit - nearly there

Ben Lawers was next, with nearly 300m climb from Bealach Dubh between the two hills.

Ben Lawers is the next hill

Creag an Fhithich lies part way up, and provided some good views.

Creag an Fhithich, with Ben Lawers behind

An Stùc, Meall Garbh and Lochan nan Cat seen from Creag an Fhithich

Raven on Creag an Fhithich, coyly turning away for its one and only portrait photo

Reaching Ben Lawers summit felt good, since it was definitely past the half way point in terms of both distance and climb. The hill seemed to be popular with ravens too.

Ben Lawers summit could do with a bit of maintenance

Beinn Ghlas was relatively quick and easy, taking only a quarter of an hour to ascend from the col.

Beinn Ghlas seen from Ben Lawers

The cloud was beginning to come down again by now, and from here the walk seemed to be on less heavily used paths. I had to search for the route down towards Meall Corranaich, but found the path fairly soon. On reaching the bottom, Meall Corranaich loomed ahead - it looked like a big climb. It was there, at about 4pm, that I saw other people for the last time on the walk. That often seems to be the time when the hills shut for the day. Anyway, there was no choice but to set off up the steep path. Half an hour later, I was on the cloud shrouded and thoroughly unremarkable summit. It was then a long flattish walk along its north ridge towards the final hill.

Meall a' Choire Lèith rises up past the col

Again, at the col, it looked like a climb I could do without. But the path up Meall a' Choire Lèith was actually at quite a nice angle, so that it was possible to maintain a good pace while climbing, and it only took 20 minutes to reach the top. Again there were sheep scattered about the flat top - so different from many more northerly hills.

The final summit, Meall a' Choire Lèith

Now, after just over 9 hours, I could head back to my bike. I set off south west from the summit, but to begin with couldn't find any path. After seeing in the distance a path near the valley floor, I headed towards it and then found the descent path over to the left.

The path down below beyond a burn, with the Tarmachan ridge beyond

Once a bit lower, it became fairly boggy for the rest of the walk. An hour and a half later, I reached my bike, which was thankfully still waiting for me. The ride down was great, but once on the A827 along Loch Tay, there was a long uphill incline. Still, I'd certainly recommend cycling it over more walking, and a refreshing glass of something non-alcoholic at the Ben Lawers Hotel completed the day.

[Grisu]

Congratulation! I enjoyed reading and the memories it brought back. Ben Ghlas and Ben Lawers had been my first munros I have done on my own, it was a competition day, so plenty of people were running up and down the hills after a swim through Loch Tay and finally they cycled around the Loch while I was busy with the two munros the whole day The other three referring to as the circuit of coire nan cat I did a year later.
I remember well the impressive dome of An Stuc but I can't remember any real struggle on the ascent. Only the descent from An Stude towards lochan nan cat caused me some trouble and I had a dangerous slide, but was lucky.
The last two had been not sooo exciting than the first walks but the views towards the range of the five other lawers was nice - I was more lucky with the weather on my walks than you but to do all 7 in a row is quite something I would like to do as well, one day

[djarvie]

That can be the advantage of splitting up a walk - you should manage to get good views at least once, whereas doing it in one go is a bit more of a lottery. But I'm happy to have avoided the need to descend to Lochan nan Cat, which always sounds the hairiest bit in the standard Lawers range walks.