Birthday Triple
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2014 6:42 pmIt was my birthday on Friday so took a day off to go munro-bagging. We stayed in Killin overnight to get an earlier start on what looked like a long walk. Stuffed full of breakfast we parked at the Lawers hotel and set off, past the horn carvers, through the flowery wood and over some enormous stiles (a test for An Stuc?). The initial cloud level did not look promising.
We followed the path beside the Lawers burn eventually turning up a faint path which became better defined as we headed upwards. There were early signs of the cloud breaking.
. We met a remarkably tame vole.
. After a steady climb through the mist we reached the top of Meall Greigh where we got fine views of a cairn!
. We then carried on towards Meall Garbh and the cloud started to break.
. And also got views of what we fondly believed to be An Stuc.
. Hope that snow isn't on the scramble! As we got closer to the top of Meall Garbh we started to wonder why if Meall Garbh and An Stuc were the same height An Stuc looked so much higher? And of there was more Meall Garbh where it was hiding? We reached the top.
. Ah that will be An Stuc then!
. So what we were looking at was yes Ben Lawers - doh! Down Meall Garbh and started up An Stuc with its infamous scramble. The first third of the climb is a clear if rocky path. Then you get to the scramble.
. This is simple with no difficult moves. Obviously you don't want to fall off but there is no reason why you should. Eventually we came out onto a clear path to the top.
. We then headed down to the bealach which currently contains a large patch of snow obscuring the way down to the lochan.
. This is bigger than it looks in the photo - we held on to the edge of it and it must have been about three foot thick. Once at the bottom of the ice we thought our problems were over but the descent is very steep on slippery grass. I slid down on my bum for about half of it and found it more worrying than the scramble up An Stuc. It was worth it once down at the lochan with stunning views of all the mountains around us. I took a picture of our descent route, the lochan, and a flower I didn't recognise. Once home my flower book indicates it's starry saxifrage.
. It was then straightforward around the loch and down to the dam.
and nice walk back to the Lawers hotel in the sunshine for tea and scones.
