Ben Cruachan + Stob Diamh (My 2nd + 3rd Munro)

[Gary1904]

Today (22nd May 2012) I planned to climb Ben Cruachan which through photos on this website looked an awesome climb. It was fairly easy to find, we parked at the train station as told to by the many reports. From there it took us just under an hour to walk up to the Scottish Power - Power Station and the view was simply incredible, it just hits you bang in the face, the huge bowl like feature the mountains and the ridges give off make it look very daunting indeed.

So we didn't read up where to start, and we made our own decision to walk to the end of the dam and walk up to the left, straight for the peak of Ben Cruachan, it was only when walking up this way that fellow climbers told us that the peak of Stob Diamh was along the ridge, so we then decided that we were going to attempt the whole ridge walk, we had only planned Ben Cruachan. It was a gorgeous day so the weather was not a factor and the walk was fairly simple, a little bit of scrambling but not much, the peak didn't take us long, around 2½ hours in total but that was also plenty of time used for photos.

Once we got to the peak we made our way along the ridge, stunning views from up there, the ridge walk very simple indeed although I can imagine it being very hard during winter time .... we made our way along to Stob Diamh and the other peaks before we came to the very end mountain and I have to say I was exhausted by that time so I could not go up yet another climb, we had to make our way down towards the dam water and the decent was very slushy with the melting snow, and very boggy but we managed. I could barely walk by the time we got to the dam and it was a long slow walk back to the car. A thouroughly enjoyable day and I would recommend doing the ridge walk while there, I would also recommend taking plenty of food and water, I went through my supply fairly quickly .... my fav climb to date

At the start of the trail beside the train Station

a little deer, bold as brass just staring at us from about 40ft away and not even flinching :)

The moment we reached the power station with Ben Cruachan in the background

Kicking some snow just before the final way up to the peak to cool us down :)

My little snowman :)

Peak of Ben Cruahan

An amazing view of the dam and the bowl

The ridge walk along to Stob Diamh from Cruachan

2nd Munro of the day = Stob Diamh with my finger on Ben Cruachan

[soulminer]

A cracking pair of Mountains to roam about on, nice choice for 2nd and 3rd

[celt12345]

well done nice pics,hoping to do them this summer.