Two Mealls and a lump of ice

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Having introduced Helen and Paul to Ben Lawers, they were keen to get back up to get another view. So did this walk. The car park at the cairn had been thoughtlessly taken up by a car and a van parking parallel to the road line, rather than parking into it, but managed to do so myself. There is room for five easily, if only folks would be more considerate.
We walked off up the path and sure enough at a builders bag (with material for the path?) it just stops where the peat hags begin and from here to the foot of the main hill it is just avoiding all the boggy bits trying to follow the fence line. Not a lot of fun, but once the climb begins in earnest, it is much better and soon we had views all round and the cloud lifted to show us Lawers eventually. We had lunch at the top of Meall Corranaich as there was not a breath of wind. The sun eventually joined us but brought the wind as well. Walked over to the rocks at end of ridge for the view and to avoid walking over steep snow patch.
Meall nan Tarmachan by Joe Kincaid, on Flickr
Good walk down to the bealach where we saw an amazing cornice collapse on Corranaich. A huge lump of ice had slid at least 100 metres down the slope and was lying on its own like an iceberg.

Cornice Collapse with icebeg

Lawers Range from Leith by Joe Kincaid, on Flickr
We walked up Meall a'Choire Leith and had a bit of a sunbathe and a drink in the sun. We decided to have a look at the iceberg on the way down, so walked over to it for a closer look. It was even bigger than we thought and it had shed large lumps as it came sliding down the slope. Couldn't resist climbing up it then having a look at the rest of the collapse.
Ice Climbing on Corranaich by Joe Kincaid, on Flickr

The slide path of ice block, Paul standing beside the small bit

The cornice collapse up close

Looking down the collapse path

From there we simple walked slowly down to the intake and across the burn and straight back to the car park. A few patches of wet to avoid but fairly good conditions most of the way.