Ben More, the drier and more interesting way to the summit

[The Rodmiester]

This was to be our second target of our weekend on Mull having climbed the only Mull Corbett the day before (report to follow). Starting at the normal starting point on the B8035 where there is a wet grassy parking area on the Loch side of the road. Already there were others booting up and after a quick exchange of words they were off with us following behind in our own good time. The rain had now stopped and we decided to leave the waterproofs in the rucksacks, positive thinking and all that..

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At the starting point just opposite the track to the cottage at Dhiseig looking towards Ben More summit in the clouds and also the more Northanly shoulder we were aiming to climb away from the tourist path trying to find drier underfoot conditions. An Gearna 563m as shown on OS maps

Looking back towards the starting point on the very wet and muddy tourist path

Still following the burn up with the burn on our right

Further up the tourist path with our target on the left of photo

Now off the tourist path climbing up to the 561m point looking back over Loch Na Keal

The very prominent cairn at the 561m point . The underfoot conditions were not nearly as wet as before so good choice of route so far

Once on the summit ridge of this shoulder the gradient flattens out and good time can be made.Unfortunately the cloud seems to be coming down even more so it looks like there may be no views at the summit of Ben More

Looking back from where we had come the right shoulder. Underfoot conditions are nor getting steeper and there is a lot of loose scree to contend with which makes climbing quite difficult

Finally we meet up with the tail end of the tourist path with the cliffs on our left side, we follow the path passing numerous cairns till we arrive at the summit shelter cairn, there is no sign of the trig point shown on my OS map at 966m. We now meet up with the three Fife lads who we met earlier and have a wee chat. Hi guys if your reading this report, hope you had a good day cycling at Tobermory on the Sunday.

On the way down the tourist path, aye it was very wet and the number of cairns built by tourists on the way down, it was a bit like on higher slopes of the Ben, UGH

Nearly back down at the car ,looking back, yes still not clear glad we didn't hang about