Unfinished Business on Lawers

[Craig 7483]

Two and a bit years on from when I completed the ‘other’ Lawers four - Beinn Ghlas, Ben Lawers, Meall Corranaich, Meall a’Choire Leith; in that order - I was delighted to be back on this day to complete the other three in question from the range with the same man I tackled the initial quartet with.

That day in question we had only set out to do Ghlas & Lawers. But, with having tackled them in quick fashion, coupled with the good weather, it made sense to tackle Corranaich and a’Choire Leith also. Serendipity and all that.

With 20/20 hindsight, I’m glad we did as linking up the would have been remaining five would’ve been a nightmare either resulting in a mammoth day or two separate visits.

An early start, we drew into the Lawers Hotel park and posted the fee thru the letterbox and got Stuc into it.

We walked along the A827 and followed the conventional route for this trio. Discussing how varying fortunes prevented this unfinished business, amongst other targets not being delivered before now.

Through the woodland and a couple of stiles later we were out on the open hillside. It was a clear day and the tops lying ahead, we could see Meall Greigh just to the left Sron Mhor that lay ahead of us.

Meall Greigh

I brought my trekking poles today and we followed the path with the July sunshine on our backs. It was fairly straightforward in optimal conditions. I used to pull clear of John on the final stretches towards the summit, but either his fitness levels are now superior to mine, or, more likely, he was desperate to get his new drone out on the summit of the first munro of the day. I could hear it whirring away and with him in his element two hours after leaving the car as I summited Meall Greigh. There was good photos taken by it as shown below.

Summit

Loch Tay

Two legs still to go. Meall Garbh had a fair drop in it as we began the descent and all the while I kept thinking of An Stuc as from the route up to Meall Greigh, it looked cliff-like and daunting - more on that later.

We made our way down to the point marked 834 on the map and there were people out with a dog making their way from the south. We speculated whether they were walking and what route they were intending on doing. As it turned out, they were herders.
We had already done Lawers as mentioned and from this perspective, it is one true hulk of a mountain.

Ben Lawers

The path up to Meall Garbh is a calf burner and keeps mainly to the left of the fence. We got to the summit and had lunch. I checked the map and was delighted that most of the ascent was done with as my hill-fitness had been lacking recently and was beginning to tell. An Stuc and its famous scramble was the last line of defence for completing the Lawers septet.

Making the downclimb we could see that the path on An Stuc veered high towards the left in zigzag fashion.

Up we go

Much has been asked and written about the scramble and in my experience it created the unusual juxtaposition of slowest pace and fastest heart rate as I pore over the pace and heart rate maps from my garmin data at that section.

John went on ahead to begin with. All in, the ascent took us just under half an hour to do, but maybe five breaks or so were required in doing this section. Altitude is gained quickly getting the heart rate up and when the hands get called into action we took our time and ensured things were going to our liking. At times, the path appeared to split and was pick the one that looks easier to get up and one one occasion, we were hanging to the right when path wasn’t obvious, when a ledge (and correct route) was over to our left requiring getting into position to downclimb and manoeuvre across all the while maintaining three points of contact on the very loose ground. This part here if you’re doing this way is the crux in my opinion. The hazards aren’t entirely over yet though as there’s still a steep drop and loose ground requiring care as we beetled along on all fours until we could make ourselves stand and walk again once the gradient eased.

Steep drop

I also feel I could’ve benefitted from a hard hat being behind John as the ground was very loose and it’s no exaggeration to say loose scree and stones were falling in my direction as he forged ahead - he was like a demon possessed as he was looking forward to get the drone out again at this summit!

I’m glad I done that under good conditions. Dry, windless and no precipitation.

An Stuc

A wee rest at the summit and it was time to make our way back to the car. The path back is very boggy and I decided to get my trekking poles back out.

On the way down

Looking back at descent from An Stuc

We ended up on the AGV track and missed the turn onto the path. I think the fact we were amazed at the farmer from earlier who now had his sheep finely assembled high up in the Sron Mhor area with the dog (he was up on Meall Garbh’s summit at one point). His fitness levels must be on another stratum.

We realised the error of our ways almost immediately though and after a two minute detour we were back on the designated route. Before we knew it we were back at the Lawers hotel although, too early to go in for refreshments as it hadn’t opened yet.

A pleasant drive home included a stop off at Killin to have a drink and unwind. It was a good but tough going day out but so worth it.