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This was another WH 'mini' meeting with some of the usual suspects, if anyone else wants to join us just watch the "Meets" threads and after umpteen PM's everything will fall into place - fingers crossed
The outing which was suggested by Gary involved studying as many weather forecasts as you can find and Gary who was in charge of organising the weather, then picking the one that looked the best
Obviously as we are now into October, one of the big problems for most walkers is the rapidly reducing number of daylight hours, the next huge problem is the travelling time to get to the start point. Just to give you some idea of the problems, Gary is in Stonehaven which is a pretty hopeless place to access the western hills from, Chris & Andy are in Broughty Ferry (posh) and Dundee which is slightly nearer, I am obviously in Fife & Karen is out just west of Glasgow - on the right side of the country but hopeless for travelling north unless you are one of the few people who enjoy driving the A82 alongside Loch Lomond
The target was originally going to be the Strathfarrar circuit, but after a bit of research that was binned due to the gate being shut at 6pm
So plan B was the Grey Corries and what a fantastic group of hills
We were aware of the approaching inclement weather and were behaving ourselves in an effort to impress the weather gods and it worked
Gary decided to car camp again and the rest of us opted for getting up at stupid o'clock, for example I left Fife at 4.20am
As I went out of the front door, I have to say I wasn't overly impressed it was chucking it down and had been for hours. Even if the rain had stopped I was not looking forward testing out the "waterproofness" of my new(ish) squeakfree boots. I met up with Chris & Andy in Perth and headed west in a convoy, as they were planning to camp in Crianlarich for another adventure on Sunday
We met up with Karen in Crianlarich and she had kindly offered to drive in her large Honda, which would cope better with the slightly uneven track to the car parking area
When Karen arrived she was a wee bit stressed out, as she had been held up on the A82 for the overnight road closure
By the way, it was still raining and only when we reached Glencoe did the wet stuff cease
When we met up with Gary at the small parking area he informed us that there had been no overnight rain
So after kitting up we set off along the track in good spirits, the main topic of conversation was the weather and Gary was fairly confident that we would be lucky
I had to check my recent reports to find out the last time we weren't attacked by the clag and it was a few walks ago
One little subject that was discussed was, would we need gaiters and Gary confidently advised us that they wouldn't be needed as there was a path for most of the day
So my gaiters stayed in the car and the subject was never mentioned again, well I might have raised it once or twice
- A few pockets of wispy cloud clinging to the hillsides
- The wee Minister
I have a huge problem of sifting out a mere 25 photo's out of the 168 I took, such a shame and for a change most of the photo's are pretty good
After going through the gate we reached the edge of the forested area and this was the point where things didn't go according to plan
We turned right and headed uphill up the wet grassy hillside, this was the first test of my new boots. It was really hard going and after about 20mins of labouring, the rain started and things didn't look at all promising
The sad thing was we couldn't over the horizon to assess the situation and a few of us were contemplating heading back down
But Chris who had been romping up the hill suggested we head to the top of the ridge and see what it looked like from there onwards, so off we set again
The trouble was the top of the ridge, was one of those false tops and us usual there were about 10 more
By that time we thought we couldn't be far from the summit - WRONG
- The trudge uphill before the rain appeared
- Further up the hill, note Karen sporting her very expensive new jacket
One thing you notice from the photo's is the lack of path, Chris was galloping ahead so I can't take the blame this time for not locating the path
We don't do fast walking (as Gary states in his disclaimer
) and that was confirmed as we were caught up & overtaken by 4 guys who were obviously on a mission and by the end of the day were more than a Munro ahead of us
The first summit of Stob Choire Claurigh was reached, we had partial views and were now in good spirits as the rain had stopped and we knew that this was the highest point of the day
We got a great view of Stob Ban and because it looked so wee, we were even beginning to doubt that it was Stob Ban
I also forgot to mention that we were contemplating taking in Stob Ban as well, depending on the time, but looking down at SB the descent looked to be pretty severe and we decided to bin that idea
- A nice wee Lochan
- The view ahead, the final summit is the pointy hill on the left, looks like many miles away
- Stob Ban from on high
- The way ahead zoomed
- What a view!!
It has to be said the views from the first summit and all the way to the final summit were awesome in every direction, it is a shame that the photo's aren't accompanied by sound. The noise that the stags were making sounded fantastic, it was travelling up and down the glens, if anyone isn't familiar with the sound that stags make, if you ever meet Chris he will be more than happy to give a free demonstration
We scoured the hills but apart from a couple of female deer were unable to spot where they were hiding
- A flavour of some of the boulder climbing
- Hard to miss the path, even I managed not to lose it (too often)
- Karen on her favourite terrain, Stob Ban in the background looking quite pointy
- Spectacular cliffs
- Views to the north
- Some poser not modelling any new gear (for a change)
- The gang, note the quality of the modelling/positioning with the final summit of Sgurr Choinnich Mor in the middle!!
- The way down from the 2nd summit of Stob Coire an Laoigh, this would also be the departure point off the ridge back to the car
- The trickiest part of the day, spot of boulder bum shuffling on quite a steep drop
- How many people can you spot?
- The final summit cairn, not overly impressive!
As usual I won't go into detail about the walk, firstly because I never remember the exact details and secondly because the route is far better detailed in the walk description
The weather had been almost ideal, a bit chilly when the wind picked, we had one brief rain shower and a few flakes of snow on the final summit, luckily the cloud base for a change was about 4000'. The waterproofs were off and on a couple of times, apart from Karen who decided to keep her jacket on, as it matched her nearly new rucksack
- A bit of mild scrambling
- Mild scrambling, Gary hands on hips admiring how well Karen and Andy were displaying their mountaineering skills
- Looking down onto the river/stream that would become a hurdle later
After the final summit you have to retrace your steps down and then back up to Stob Coire an Laoigh before descending down the grassy ridge towards the forested area. The initial part of the descent was fine, with a fairly well trodden path, but as usual once the squelchier terrain is reached the path disappeared
So I was now in my element, as usual I was getting a bit of stick but I have broad shoulders and like to keep the spirits up
The terrain was either tufty grass, hydroponic grass and holes, the holes were a source of amusement as both Gary and Chris were competing to see who could find the most and the numbers quoted were a tad exaggerated
We eventually, after much moaning reached the deer fence and little did we know things were going to get a whole lot worse
The descent down to the dam was steep, in fact make that very steep. We ended up clinging onto the fence whilst we descended and as the wires looked fairly bent, we obviously weren't the first ones to experience the pleasures
We reached the river bank and as Chris was 'leading' the descent he was looking for "the way ahead" without having to cross the river. He managed to clamber round the fence to the other side but there was no obvious way ahead, so Gary who was 2nd in command, headed along the river bank away from the dam. There isn't a path and it involved clinging onto branches whilst overhanging the river
The plan was to find a suitable crossing point, in other words the shallowest bit
Karen, who we found out later didn't really enjoy the descent very much and decided on the direct approach, splash splash, splash, water was probably just below the knees but she was on the other side of the river in a millisecond
We chaps thought we had found a shallowish bit and went for it, this would really test the waterproofness of my boots and they got a big thumbs up
We all reached the otherside without any mishaps and then it was the long trek back along the track back to the cars
After just over 10 hours we were all really glad to reach the cars, we southerners had planned to head to Kingshouse Hotel for a well earned meal
Many thanks to Karen for driving, it can't be easy have 3 male back seat drivers
Thanks to all my colleagues for making the day very memorable, as usual the banter was first class
This walk has to be in the top ten walks and is a must to be done in decent weather
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