This all looks very familiar, Rockhopper. I walked this route on Monday - following in your footsteps (more or less)!
You've captured it all really well - great pictures and a tale well told.
It looks a lot frostier in your pictures on Stob Coire nan Lochan than in mine - you must have been up there quite early. By the way, to leave the lost valley, the path
ascends on the right just before the big boulders - but I still agree that it would be hard to get cattle up there (maybe they could scramble in those days!
).