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We had a shortened weekend as Allison was away seeing James (the band) on Friday night. Something close to home was the order of the day. The steep, rough Corbett(s) and Grahams north of Loch Katrine would fit the bill - A needed the Grahams for her almost complete second round and I needed them too. I had speculated about going in again from Stronlachar, but the distance was too great to cover in two days, especially when we wouldn't get there til mid-morning Saturday. So a trip to Inverlochlarig was required. Arrived at around 9.30 - half the car park taken up by camper vans. We got stuff ready to go when A asks - "where's the sleeping bags"? A good question. Somebody (ie me) had forgotten to pack them.
We had two choices here - we could either just do a day walk and do one or two of the hills (I hadn't brought day packs though...) or we could just try and do without sleeping bags. Now normally in June that wouldn't be too much of a problem - a nice balmy evening...however we were caught in the grip of icy weather from the northwest with strong winds and overnight temperatures of 2 degrees (with windchill taking that down to -4 on the tops). Hmmmm. We had a look around the car and shoved in two puffy jackets, a thin little fleecy blanket and a picnic rug. Surely that would do?
We set off along the track, me feeling somewhat sheepish at my error. The wind was freezing cold - more like January than June and I was a little apprehensive about the coming night. The route I'd drawn up went right along to the end of the track that follows the River Larig west, I hadn't realised that Beinn Chabhair could be done from here - needed to tweak my inner-geography. The track ends at a sheepfold and we continued on past the Y-split in the river, following the line of old fence posts. Some animal tracks to assist. We headed for Bealach nan Corp, which provided the easiest route of ascent - although you could cut up the hillside before this. And suffer steepness. Allison wasn't feeling well - nauseated, possibly from her late night. That wasn't great for what could be a tough day.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Bealach nan Corp
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Al, on Flickr
We reached the ridge and continued to follow the fence line up and down over numerous lumps and bumps until the summit of Meall Mor was reached. Stob Binnien and Ben More were sitting pretty to the north. East we could see the continuing line of the knobbly ridge, with Stob a'Choin at the end of it. We gathered ourselves and went on, up and down. I was thinking about what to do this evening. My plan had been to climb Stob a'Choin and camp somewhere after that. However it was very windy and I was worried about high camping without a sleeping bag...so I suggested that we have an early break and camp at the (low) bealach between Stob an Duibhe and Stob a'Choin, which isn't much higher than 300m. It would also mean we could escape back to the track if we were in difficulty, although I thought that unlikely. 400 metres down, with the promise of 600 very steep metres back up - I've done it once with a big pack and it was gruelling. But at least we could put that off til tomorrow. Finding a camp spot at the bealach was not easy however - tussocks and marshy ground. I thought it might be better on the south side of the lochan, so we walked round there, scaring some sheep in the process, but it was't really. We ended up with a crappy pitch not sheltered from the wind and sloping downwards so we had to have our heads at the "foot end" of the tent. As if things weren't going to be bad enough...
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Stob a'Choin
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Al, on Flickr
We unpacked and pulled on the puffy jackets, just as the rain started. It continued for much of the night, along with gusty winds that had the tent flapping and snapping. We settled down under our makeshift covers and were actually alright, no frostbitten limbs or even extremities.
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Al, on Flickr
The morning was dry - late getting up since sleep had been hard to come by. We packed away the tent and decided to ascend Stob a'Choin from the south, via Coire an Laoigh. This proved to be more pleasant than the hard pull up the western flank. Good views from the summit, for the first in four times for me. Then began the roller coaster that takes you along the ridge line towards our next objective, Stob Breac. Drop 100m, climb very steeply up another 100m, follow a fence line that suddenly drops over a cliff...great fun. At least we had good visibility today and when you were sheltered from the wind it verged upon the quite warm. There's one particular section, before you get to Cnoc na Nathrach, where the fence line descends right over crags - so you need to skirt them widely either to the left or right, but don't follow the line unless you want some rock climbing.
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Al, on Flickr
Coire an Laoigh
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
West
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Al, on Flickr
North
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Al, on Flickr
Loch Katrine
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Bistorta Vivipara - apparently the bulbs are sought by ptarmigan
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Al, on Flickr
The craggy bit best avoided
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Al, on Flickr
From further away
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Al, on Flickr
An Stuchd
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Thereafter it was a real slog up to An Stuchd. I was feeling beat - no energy at all - maybe I'm coming down with some lurgy or other, but the possible plan of continuing on to include Ben Stacath was out the window. We made our way over the undulating back of Stob Breac, reaching the summit which is, of course, as far away as possible. Looking around at the surrounding mountains everything seemed craggy and very very rough, with the pointy bits of Stob Binnien and others. From here I had drawn a line down through a fire break in the forestry til you join with a forest track, which hopefully would take us almost all the way back to the road. Of course, forest tracks on maps and in reality can be quite different. But this was actually ok - I had checked it on aerial maps - and the descent through the trees was fine, apart form being chastised by many small flies - and the track was indeed a track that hadn't been overwhelmed by trees. We came to a clearing where I'd drawn us descending - no path here but a damaged deer fence that you can crawl underneath, following a stream down to a plantation and a ruined house - probably one of many that Rob Roy lived in. Then just follow the fence line til track is reached, bridges over the river and voilà.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
I never want to do these hills again
