Super Seven on Ben Lawers

[Quadbarrel]

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Where do I start?

Decided after doing Ben More I wanted to do something higher. So, as Ben Lawers was the only one within daytrip distance that I could find, I asked dad to do this and he said it was fine. I think he may have been a bit more surprised when I came up to him and said I wanted to do another 6 after that. But for some reason he said yes, and we were off!

Decided to ditch the bikes up next to Lochan na Lairige and start the walk from the Ben More Hotel (good starting point as well as an excuse to have a drink at the end of it all!)

So off we went, down the road and then off up towards Meall Greigh. Headed up through the forest and were very glad to see the end of it as the path got pretty dodgy and overgrown in some places. Kept following the path until it descended into the steep-sided valley of the Lawers Burn, at which point we followed what we thought was a path and turned out not to be up to the bottom of the slopes, then up. After a very long and hard slog reached Sron Mhor - only to find this wasn't the top! Only another 200 metres of ascent. After somehow conquering this, reached the summit of Meall Greigh.

Meall Greigh

Once we were up on the ridge the going was a lot easier, if boggy in some areas, and we made good progress down into Lairig Innein and after a quick chat with some friendly walkers headed up onto Meall Garbh.

Me on Meall Garbh

Dad on Meall Garbh

Descended down into the bealach to a few facts from me about how this bealach we were heading down into was 80 metres higher than the shortest munros, yet somehow still not the highest of the day. Began to ascend the steep north-east slope of An Stuc. Was actually surprisingly easy compared to the other reports, don't know wether by luck or of skill (yeah right!) After not too long the slope went from vertical to horizontal and we were at the top!

An Stuc

After some lunch, headed down into Bealach Dubh and up onto Creag an Fhithich for a few photos, before heading up onto the very busy summit of Ben Lawers, the reason we were here!

Ben Lawers and maybe a tiny bit of cloud inversion

Headed down the other side of Ben Lawers and down into the highest bealach of the day, then almost strolled up onto Beinn Ghlas.

Me on Beinn Ghlas

Dad on Beinn Ghlas

Made sure we took the north-west path down from the summit, then tried to follow it and completely failed. Ended up just trying to head for the path down below. Once this path was reached, headed round to the bealach and then followed another path up onto Meall Corrainaich.

Meall Corrainaich

Headed down the ridge and, after much looking over then map, convinced dad we neede to take the lower ridge of to the north, not the other one of to the north-west. Headed down here, into the last and lowest bealach of the day, and up onto Meall a' Choire Leith.

Meall a' Choire Leith

From here it was a case of straight down. Set a target of the intake we could see below Coire Gorm and aimed for that. Reached that eventually after our legs turning to jelly, then headed for the next intake on Allt Gleann Da'-Eig. Tried to follow what looked like a path, lost it in a bog, found it again after about 1/2km and followed it the wrong way. I headed down onto the other path and a wee bit later dad did too, then just a stroll on this path and back down to something they say people call a ROAD!!!

Now it was just a case of picking up the conveniently placed bikes (300 metres above the starting point ) and cycling back down.

Off we go!

Lost all our height in the first 4km, then it was just gradual but incredibly tiring uphill for the last 7km back to the start for a well-deserved snack.

[bar72]

well done young man. did this last year and couldn't even face anything other than 2 pints of lemonade at the Lawers hotel )

[tomyboy73]

well done , i done the 5 of them at once and was knackered, great effort

[GillC]

Fantastic,,what a difference in a month,,we were up this way on 3rd November, got the first 3 covered then beaten back by seriously strong winds in deep snow. Great effort,,,only have the back 3 to go here myself,,,circling them on my radar,,

Well done

[GillC]

7 Lawers Munros! 7.5 hours! Short trousers in November! See young people! [And that includes dad!] Sick with jealousy! Brilliant!

Indeed,,,fair blasting round them there.