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My first time walking with my neighbour Fiona. She was up for an early start and a big walk which was already a good start in my book. Plan was to do a probable 6 Lawers peaks from Camusvrachan with a get-out of missing Meal Garbh if descending An Stuc looked too horrible. We weren’t really sure how much snow would be left, all walk reports from previous few days looked as if it was well on it’s way out but it’s always hard to tell exactly. We’d packed axes and crampons just in case.
Set off from Camusvrachan to ascend Meall a Choire Leith heading anti-clockwise round towards Lawers itself. Fiona didn’t particularly love my choice of straight up the pathless tussocky ground but once we’d got a rhythm going and reached the ridge, we’d worked out we walk at roughly the same speed and were chatting away merrily. Views were great to start with, An Stuc, Lawers and Beinn Ghlas all clear, all with some snow but nothing to write home about.
We didn’t see anyone until the top of Meall Corranaich, after which the numbers gradually increased until we left the top of Lawers. Between Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers felt like a bit of motorway but as soon as we left the top of Lawers peace reigned again. Unfortunately the clag descended at that point and views were minimal until the bealach between Lawers and An Stuc. Thankfully the clag remained above An Stuc and so when confronted with the decision of whether to bail off the ridge northwards at this point or continue round to Meall Garbh, we were able to make a fairly informed decision. Fiona was keen to get one more hill in, and the lack of snow further up was reassuring (if a little misleading) so we continued. I had ascended the gully on the eastern side of An Stuc on a previous trip, and remembered it was quite challenging, holding onto snow for quite a while, so after warning Fiona of this, we cautiously descended. The gully was indeed still full of quite a lot of snow, and descending it was a matter for some care. We were both glad we had bought axes and although everything was mostly too soft for crampons, it was comforting to have the axe to assist.
The rest of the walk was very straight forward and the descent down to the Allt a’ Chobhair was rapid and painless. I had dinner at a friends to get to and a big night out planned so we marched down the track back to the car at quite a pace. Legs were a wee bit sore the next day but I am still blaming that on staying out til 4am dancing that night. Nothing to do with the hills.
