Our toughest day yet - the Ben More 4

[Flo-go]

Ever since coming back from my 3 day Cairngorms trip in July I'd been itching to do some longer hill days. Had the Crianlarich hills or the Ben Lui 4 set in my sights and eventually decided on Stob Binnein and Ben More from Inverlochlarig with an option to add on Cruach Ardrain and Beinn Tulaichean if we felt up for it and the weather and light were holding up.

The day didn't start out too well. Realised I didn't actually have the map for the walk I'd planned and when I turned the computer on didn't have any luck with the printer...so took pictures of the map and planned route with my camera (which was fully charged). Of course this meant that if the weather turned or the clag moved in we would have to make a hasty retreat despite still having compass and phone GPS which I really don't like relying on.

Got into the car at 8am and promptly drove the wrong way. I was almost out of the city by the time I realised so turned back into Glasgow during rush hour to meet the M8. It had also started to rain and the sky was a horrible uniform grey. My mood wasn't great and I really hoped things would improve. Luckily they did.

We rolled into the car park at 10.15 am. Got booted up and headed off to the farm house (as a sign asked us to do) to ask about stalking and our choice of route. Very friendly people and luckily no stalking on so we had the run of the land. Met a guy also heading to the farmhouse when on our way back to the start of the walk. He was also planning to do Stob Binnein and Ben More and we'd saved him a bit of a walk.

We hopped over the stile at 10.40 and up the rough path straight up the hill. I was happy we'd had a little warm up walk as there really is no walk in! The steep climb felt tougher than usual and I needed frequent little rests to get up to the shoulder. Once there we stopped at a small cairn and we could just see the top of Stob Binnein poking out, it looked really far away.

Luckily the going was much less steep until the final push up Stob Binnein. Got to the top of munro number 1 after 2hr10mins. Not bad going although it felt like it took much longer. We had a small rest, marvelled at the view and went off towards the next target of the day. Legs felt fine on the downhill but almost as soon as we hit the uphill after the bealach I started to feel them burning again. Luckily it was getting quite busy with a few couples coming off Ben More having climbed it from the Crianlarich side. This gave me some much needed excuses to stop and have a wee chat. We didn't avoid the scramble, it was quite easy with little exposure although I didn't pay attention and managed to find a 'head hold'. Not my favourite way of having 4 points of contact! Head throbbing slightly we were soon at the trig point and cairn atop Ben More (3h10mins). It really felt like autumn at the top with a stiff breeze blowing.

Back down to the bealach for the 2nd time. We were both tired and had almost decided to call it a day although neither of us voiced that thought. We were still going for the 'we'll see how we feel at the valley floor'