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Sunday 7th May 2017 saw a ridge of high pressure sitting over Scotland so we were guaranteed a great day out in the hills.
We had initially wanted to bag a pair down deepest Glen Etive, but at Crianlarich we noticed a road sign indicating that the A82 would be closed from Bridge Of Orchy at 9pm, there was no way we'd be back by then, so we changed our minds and headed to the mighty Ben Lui instead.
Peter and I had climbed this previously from the carpark on the A85 side, catching the smaller munro Beinn a Cheilbh too.
We had always said that we would love to return and go the long approach from Dalrigh, so we plumped for that.
We parked up around 11:30am, suprised that the car park at Dalrigh was not full! Not having a description of the route to hand was an issue, with the phone only allowing GPRS. We headed for the river and went right, it wasn't long before we merged back to the landrover track that goes all the way to the base of Ben Lui.
This track, hell lets call it a motorway, is 3 lane all the way to the Cononish mine and farm with the green roofs and would lend itself very much to cycling. Its pretty flat and the surface, althought not tarmac, is really good with no massive potholes.
After the farm the track becomes more dual carriageway rather than motorway, still very cycleable mind. It starts to gently climb uphill before eventually falling down to a river at the base of Ben Lui.
A good time to have a break, take on some food and a cup of coffee. The path onwards is obvious, its to the right of the small river that flows from Ben Lui, you gain about 1000 feet here quite quickly until you reach the Coire.
There is a small cairn on this path which marks the decision point - head on the very faint path to the right and up onto Stob Garbh, or stick with the main path and head left.
We fancied a bit of scrambling so chose the latter option. The main path eventually fizzles out at the Bolder field and then you chose your route. We headed up a small gully with some real nice unexposed scrambling.
Once at the top of this you can then skirt round Ben Lui and climb it from the path that comes from Ben Oss, or follow the scrambling path left heading straight towards the summit. There is a bit more exposure here but nothing too daunting. It brought us right out at the summit on Ben Lui, which was busy as lots of walkers had arrived from the A85 carpark.
Unlike our last visit here, which was clagged, the views were stunning and due to the great visibility, we could see all the way to Arran, Jura, Mull on the West and Ben Nevis, CMD and the Aonachs to the North. We filled out boots with photos and videos on both summits before dropping steeply to Stob Garbh.
The path here skirts the cliffs, so real care needs to taken, but its all fine. Once on the plateau of Stob Garbh you look back up to the summit of Ben Lui and those cliffs are very imposing. A cairn marks the top of the 600 foot drop back down to the coire, picking up the main path and retracing your steps another 1000 feet to the river at the end of the dual carriageway. A two hour walkout to the car saw us return at 20:30, giving a 9 hour time for the walk, 4 hours of which is the motorway there and back.
A tremendous day on the hills!