free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Sunday 23rd September 2012 was forecast to be a great day weather wise, so I hatched a plan with Peter for an early start to tackle these two mamores.
I picked Peter up in Glasgow at 7:30am, stopping briefly on the traverse of Glencoe to shoot Buachaille Etive Mor and the Aonach Eagach Ridge.
Buachaille Etive Mor:
Aonach Eagach Ridge:
We arrived at the car park at Polldubh down the Glen Nevis Road at 10am. The parking is free for 1 hour and £3 for all day. Now, I didn't know this and only had £2 in coins, so drove over the bridge and parked beside the lower falls for nothing. Felt bad about this as the paths at the end through the fallen forest are a work of art and deserve to be paid for.
We crossed the river and instead of following the river path, started heading up the obvious and non-boggy path towards the beallach. It traverses some deciduous woodlands and you always have the river below you and to your right, until you reach the upper stage almost at the beallach whence there is an obvious crossing of the river. There is a lot of water available from the the streams coming down from the devils ridge, so fill up here as it'll be your last on the walk!
The views over to your right of the cliffs of Stob Ban, who looks really pointy from here are amazing!
The pointed Stob Ban becomes visible:
The cliffs are imposing:
"Astounding" would sum this view up well:
A look back to the coire at the start of the Devil's Ridge:
My walking companion - Peter913:
A look back at the Devil's Ridge:
The Ben and Sgurr a Mhaim (end of Devils Ridge/Ring Of Steall):
This walk has the most amazing moment when you turn the corner near the top and you are faced with the plateau where the 2nd munro Mullach Nan Coirean (917m) sits, and you are seven more amazed to turn round and see the summit cairn of Stob Ban (999m) just a matter of 20 odd feet away! The opposite of a false summit!
View down to Mullach Nan Coirean:
The views from this summit are superb - to the north we have Ben Nevis flanked by Carn Mor Dearg and adjoined by the famous arete. To the rear are the Aonachs of Mor and Beag. 4 mountains of over 4000 feet.
Ben Nevis with CMD Arete:
Not to be outdone, to the east we have the Ring of Steall with the eastern mamores behind. South we have the Aonach Eagach ridge with Bidean Nam Bian sitting behind, the Ballachulish horsehoe and then Loch Linnhe sparkling in the autumnal sun. Stunning!
Loch Linnhe:
Stoney descent off Stob Ban and friendly wave from walker we met at summit:
A look back at the summit of Stob Ban - not so pointy after all:
We then start heading down the stoney path to the grassly plateau which changes to a narrow ridge. The scenery is very Cairngorms like at this point. There is a bypass path to the shielded left side of the ridge which we used. Then it is a very broad plateau with a gentle rise to the very large cairn of Mullach nan Coirean. The Ben looks very different from here but you can see the path all the way from Glen Nevis past the half way Lochan and onto the zig zags and the summit.
A look east to the fellow 8 mamores:
The path follows the shoulder to the north and drops down until it reaches a high deer fence whence you turn left and follow the deer fence all the way to the stile that you'll see. It is quite steep but not overly so. Nearer the bottom it becomes a quagmire and you will get wet feet! Cross over the syle and follow the path through the pine forest and then through the fellen forest which is very distinctive - made from stones with bumber bars made using the smaller logs! Eventually this reaches a wide track so turn right. This soon forks and you follow left down through some really tall pines, veering into the woods at the hairpin bend - a very well defined path along the stream soon rejoins this track again and then you have a gate to go through and then you are back on the Glen Nevis road just at a wee white house.
Not far to walk along this road until you are either back at the carpark of cross the river to the free parking beside the lower falls at Polldubh.
8.5 hours not bad considering the time that Peter and I devote on the hillds to getting our photos and video.
This has given me a great insight into the Ring of Steall which I've still to do.
The views from up here are outstanding, breathtaking infact. I really enjoyed this walk with the exception of the boggy bit just before the style. This could be my favourite walk yet.
HD Video of the Walk:
http://youtu.be/u496f5k3l80?hd=1