Autumn delights in Killin

[Hillwalker and Her]

A last trek up north for this year. This time we plumped for a three day stay in Killin. We headed up early Wednesday morning with a plan to tackle Meall Bhuide in Glen Lyon in the afternoon, but a combination of a minor problem with the car and the fact that it rained heavily most of the way put paid to getting up and down before darkness fell. So we went to the Falls of Dochart Inn instead!
Next morning after a three course breakfast, we drove the short distance to Lawers car park. Mist swirled around the valley and engulfed Loch Tay and we had patches of mist too but the sun was hard at work.

heading up through the nature trail

The snow had fallen on the upper slopes and Beinn Ghlas looked immense and beautiful. We headed up through the Lawers nature trail and soon we were on the zig zag path that carried us to the lower ridge. We met with the snow line soon after and the mist seemed to be following us up the ridge.

. We headed higher up the ridge, now completely snowbound through the rocky upper slopes to reach the rather nondescript summit of Beinn Ghlas, marked only by a small cairn. We hung around for a while though to take in the stupendous views. Our next objective Ben Lawers was in crystal clear view, beautifully white against the azure blue sky. so we descended down to the bealach where we donned our spikes to help with the upward climb to Ben Lawers. Upwards through the rocks then to meet the now obligatory false summit, but the summit cone was only a short distance away. The white trig point nearly hidden by the snow. Looking back at Beinn Ghlas from here was a far more imposing sight and looking quite menacing with the mist now shrouding it's summit.

Looking back to Beinn Ghlas

We took our place on the summit of Ben Lawers and once again hung around to take in the views.

Ben Lawers summit

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Wind scoured trig point

. We descended back through the snowy rocks, back to the bealach where we stopped and took refreshments. Here we decided that instead of re climbing Beinn Ghlas we would take the traverse path around to another bealach at the foot of Meall Corranaich. I thought briefly about quickly climbing Meall Corranaich, but I was given a steely glare by my wife who quickly ushered back down the valley and through the nature reserve to the carpark! I wish I had, that night more snow had completely obliterated the path from the bealach. And the snow was too deep to attempt it. mmmmmm. now then love, what about Tarmachan!??

[rambler]

Looks great despite the mist on the summit - fabulous blue skies

[Lenore]

Winter time already! Sounds like a good day out

[Hillwalker and Her]

Looks great despite the mist on the summit - fabulous blue skies

The mist did swirl around for a good length of time, but it never really threatened to engulf us. The snow line on the 1st of November was quite high. But during the night it snowed heavily and brought the snow line right down almost to the carpark