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Margaret and I had this day in the diary for a walk of some description. As M hadn't been out on the hills since last Autumn, I had considered the Dollar Glen circuit we covered on our Nav course at the beginning of the month. Then Margaret suggested Ben Lomond, wouldn't need any thought, known route etc, up by the track and down via Ptarmigan. I had also suggested I might do More and Stob B on the Sunday and by some sleight of hand, all of a sudden, this was the plan for today.
Driving in from the East, as soon as these two leviathans came in to view, I pointed them out to Margaret, could have been a dodgy moment, she nearly fell off her seat, AND SHE WAS DRIVING!!!
But, with the mantra, slow and steady...we vowed to 'Just Do It' (did you know, Nike is the name of the Goddess of Victory? well, did you?)
I admit to being a bit nervous about today, been circling these on my radar for a while but kept hearing about the "relentless slog" "lungbuster" etc and started to view these as 'just get them out the way'. Warning Margaret of what others had said, we decided to go slow, take it as it comes and just plod our way up and down, and up and down.
- Up to Ben More
With a bit of a later start than normal, 10:55am we were parked on the verge at the start point along with a pile of other cars and headed off up the track. Weather hotting up nicely, I was carrying the sun cream, Margaret the Avon midge repellent (Margaret is barred from putting sun cream on before a walk, always a jinx and it WILL rain!)
We could see some other people a bit higher on the path as we headed up the farm track. Looked like a single, a 3 and a 2 group. We took our lead from them and headed up just past the gate.
Bit of bog on the way but nothing too bad so we just picked our way up, fabulous warm sunny day with clear views all around. It was easy to break the slog up, aim for the natural line across the hillside, or top of the next bump etc.
- Margaret on the up
- Views North
- ...and West
- ... and East
The WH route mentions reaching the drystone wall around 800mtrs but is more of a drystone...low pile of stones lol Long time since that was a wall but at least it gave us an indication of our height gained. The path is pretty good here and not as steep as the ascent so far, eventually leading off to the east to circle Cuidhe Chrom, spent some time here enjoying the views over some big 'sticky oot' rocks while Margaret got up and over a small rocky scramble and followed me round on the level path. Views to the East were a bit hazy but the Lawers range was looking sharp and we could see through Glencoe to Nevis and CMD in the North, over to Cruachan further to the West. I found the second half/top half of the hill a lot easier, seemed to get a second wind and a newfound energy so took advantage and just pushed on.
- A sunny selfy
I do like a hill where the top is there, as soon as you put your head up above the edge lol and sure enough, straight up and there was the cairn. 1 chap we met on the way up was getting his picture taken on the cairn by another couple, I jumped on and got mine taken too, then Margaret and I got our old favourite, star pose done.
I'm reliably informed that the cairn, not the trig a bit further on, is the true summit, but we spent some time on both anyway, settling down at the trig for some lunch.
- Top of Ben More
- The girlies are back!
From here, we managed to put some other people right on the cairn being the summit, after, of course, we had watched them walk past it and on to the trig. Some girls and a couple. Taking the couples pic for them, we found out it was her (Amanda) 40th Birthday,,so it had to be done, full rendition of Happy Birthday sung as she headed to the cairn for her summit pic. The guy we met on the way up then headed off, down a 'gully' to the right of the trig, then appeared 3 seconds later at the bottom, about 2 feet lower than us, saying "not much of a gully then" had Margaret in stitches that, for most of the day lol
Some poor bloke was lying just in front of the trig, I think about 6-7 of us all shouting conversations and singing across the top may have been disturbing him, so on our departure, we raised a hand and apologised, wishing him a peaceful day. ( He was waiting for his "gangly big lad" of a son to come back off Stob Binnein
)
- Stob Binnein, with relaxing man under the Ben More trig
Up until now, Margaret was doing fab, tiring with this being her first day on the hills since last year (and what a hill to make a comeback on!
) The option of dropping to the beallach Eadar dha Bheinn and waiting for me to do Stob Binnein was always on the cards but looking down and seeing the clear path up to the second Munro, boosted by some food, water and a wee breather, she squared up and decided to give it a go.
Coming off Ben More is pretty steep but straight forward. There is one section where I shimmied down, stretched to the max to get my leg/foot down off the big rock, as Margaret is only 2ft6,
she opted for the documented bypass round to the left, as did the 2 girls behind us. Carrying on from here,,soon down at the Beallach with the huge boulder, at 862 mtrs.
Looking up the path,, again lots of people at varying heights up. I reckoned an hour would do it. Not too much of a zig zag, bit more like ziiiiiiiiig zaaaaaaaag. I was starting to feel the burn here, in the calfs and from the sun. My earlier energy boost flagged a bit but as with everyone above us, we just stopped for a wee 10 second breather every now and then. A new pair had appeared in front of us, couldn't see where they'd come from but on getting to the top after only 45 minutes, we had a chat and found out they had come up the route of descent but further round under the steeper part of of SB. Another couple who arrived shortly after had done the same. I had considered this route but glad we stuck to the tried and tested one, neither of those guys would recommend it lol
- Top of Stob Binnein
- 2nd fab hill today
- The ridge to Stob Binnein from Inverlochlarig in the South
- Stob a Choin, fab Corbett from earlier in the year
- Mountains, mountains and more mountains
- Margaret on Stob B.
We sat here for a while, soaking up the rays, enjoying the views. Tulaichean where John dislocated his finger earlier in March looks tantalisingly close to Ardrain, which we had returned to via the much longer Northern route. Through to Chabhair, An Casteil and a'Chroin Just lovely all round.
On the way up from the Beallach, we had surveyed the path off round Ben More and the lack of path 'straight down' but we could see where the former stayed high above rocks on BM. Half hour descent from Stob B to the Beallach and we joined a string of other climbers descending down towards Benmore burn. A couple we had met on the top (he wearing lime green leggings and some kind of 'bowler hat') could be seen coming down from the higher path, poss realised it was the wrong one, or saw us lemmings dropping off that way.
The good thing here was, we could already see the head of the track we were aiming for. There is a path for most of the way down but it cuts around lots of boggy streams etc. It was about 5pm now but the sun was burning so, unwisely we put on the sun cream for the first time today. (evidence later proved this was a bit late
)
- On the descent from the bealach
- Ardrain up on the left
- Selfie on the way down
All the youngsters were fleeing off into the distance,,us oldies taking our time, (enjoying the sun!) We passed the lime green legged man, his other half had a big fleece on, must have been roasting but she "didn't have the energy to take it off" lol
Back on the track, couple of well placed rocks provided cover for the last loo stops of the day before striding out and down. Reaching the stretch towards the gate where we left the path earlier, there is a cairn off in the middle of the land to the left. This might be a memorial to 4 men killed here when a small Vickers passenger plane crashed on the upper slopes back in the 70's, anyone know?
Through the gate and on down when we saw something a little out of the ordinary. A wee fella, looked like a character from a dodgy Python sketch, wild flowing hair, shorts, trainers, (that's it) running up the track towards us. Our "afternoon!" greeting was met with a total blank, he didn't even blink lol ran on past, with his hairy back and off round the bend.
- Bloke running up the track from the farm,
Back down to the car at 18:05, 3-4 other cars still on the verge, Huge bottle of banana milk, fresh socks and shoes, bliss.
This was a blast, first long day Margaret and I have had out on the hills together for a long time. Was a laugh a minute, as always and we were a) still talking to each other and b)still actually able to talk. This was nothing like as bad as I had anticipated, hard push up the hill but very rewarding and loved it. (Im sure though, if the sun wasn't shining, it could have been oh so different.
Munros 84 & 85 done for me, M's not counting but a day to remember.