Who's afraid of Virginia Stuc

[kurtstat]

The magnificent views we got of the Ben Lawers range when we were on Meall Corranaich and Meall a’ Choire Leith at the end of August… …well, those views drew us back three weeks later. We set off from the Ben Lawers Hotel at 11:45am to climb the two Mealls at the eastern end of that range. Now I know that this walk usually includes An Stuc to make it a satisfying three-Munro circuit of Lochan nan Cat, but we’d read one or two walk reports of the steep-scrambly route up An Stuc from Meall Garbh and had decided it was too scary for us.

The short walk along the A827 was relatively traffic-free. Then – at the horn carver’s workshop - we turned left up the well-signed path through the trees. Then we went past the ruins of the shielings to reach the small - very small! - cairn that marks the right turn up the shoulder of Sron Mhor.

The path was steep in places, but not too steep. And it's grassy, so it was a fairly straightforward ascent, and there was a weird mixture of blue sky above and swirling clouds below to distract us. Occasional bursts of sunshine, too, but we didn’t get much of a view across to Ben Lawers as we climbed.

But by the time we got to the top of Meall Greigh things were starting to look a bit clearer. This was the view towards Meall Garbh:



It was quite a long trek from here to Meall Garbh. Took us about an hour-and-a-half. You have to descend to a bealach, and on that descent the looming bulk of Meall Garbh looks more imposing than it is when you’re actually climbing it:



While we were on this ascent to Meall Garbh. we met two or three pairs of walkers coming the other way, each with their own spin on how hard the An Stuc scramble is. Bear in mind, all these people had come down it today, and they all seemed to think two old past-it blokes like us would manage it OK. But they didn’t sway us from our original plan to just go as far as the top of Meall Garbh and then retrace our footsteps.

The top of Meall Garbh was grand. The clouds were still swirling, but occasionally there’d be enough of a gap to see beyond. I’m not sure whether the looming hill in the distance is An Stuc or Ben Lawers but – whichever - it was mighty pleasing to the eye:



It had taken us four hours to get from the car to Meall Garbh's summit. It only took three to go back the same way. It was a beautiful descent. The tops were now fully clear, and there was early-evening light and shadow to enliven the landscape.

Some people we met on the route were doing the seven Ben Lawers Munros in a single day. Well, I’ve still only done six of them, and it’s taken me 37 years so far! Hopefully at some point soon I’ll do the seventh (An Stuc), but I’ll do it from the Ben Lawers side and retrace my steps. Me, I’m afraid of Virginia Stuc!