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The observant among you will have noticed that I have had a busy week, Glencoe on Monday & after checking the forecast posted in the meets bit for a day out next to Loch Treig. Karen volunteered to accompany me so after a couple of PM's we arranged to meet in Callander & I would be the chauffeur, leaving Karen's car in the long stay car park. As usual Karen was early, she didn't actually tell me what time she arrived at the car park, I was there 10 mins before the scheduled 7am meet
So we set off for yet another couple of hours in the car heading NW
Just after Spean Bridge heading east on the A86 I was aware of a silver Toyota Yaris trying to climb into the boot, so being a considerate motorist (as I was driving at 50mph) I pulled over & who should be in the Yaris none other than Simon-B, who took what seemed like ages to overtake
It was only when he was alongside that I twigged
I knew he was planning to conquer Creag Meagaidh & as it turned out that was where he was heading, another 3 to his tally, what a week of weather you brought north with you
We turned off the A86 (signposted Fersit) & follwed the single track road past the wee loch & parked in a parking area that can cope with quite a few cars
- The end of the road at the car park
- Car park
Once we were kitted up it was then decision time, do we follow a path heading upwards through the grass, follow the track towards the dam or go back to the wee loch as per WH?
So the map was out, compass was out, WH route was out & in the end we opted to go up the wee path into the undergrowth.
All was going OK as we knew we had to cross the tram line, we arrived at that obstacle, however there was a new(ish) fence with barb wire along the top in our way. So after a brief discussion, it had to be brief as we were becoming food for our eating friends, we decided to climb over the fence, very carefully - especially as I was wearing shorts for the first time this year
So after that hurdle we continued wandering upwards through the ferns & long grass hoping to stumble across a path, we were heading towards the ridge that was obviously the way ahead.
- We were being watched carefully
We did eventually come across a path which led us up to a very large trig point, am sure someone will explain why it is positioned there & why so big? It certainly made up for the lack of trig's on the summits
- The odd trig point
- Building on the edge of Loch Treig, any suggestions?
- Looking back to the car park, with Loch Treig to the right
- Photo doesn't show how daring I was
- The long ridge up to Stob a'Choire Mheadhoin, note the lack of path's
There is a nice little scramble up the buttress
- Your first thought - how are we going to get up there
It is quite a long walk along the ridge to the first summit of Stob a'Choire Mheadhoin.
- Summit cairn on Stob a'Choire Mheadhoin, nothing special
- Loch Treig
- Stob Coire Easain looking very impressive, still holding a bit of snow
The descent down to the bealach towards Stob Coire Easain was straight forward, on the bealach we met a chap who didn't speak very good English he had been up to the summit & said his wife was waiting on the scree slope for him & they were staying in a bothy heading towards the Grey Corries. We never actually saw him descend, but the way down looked pretty scary, either loose scree or snow that looked like very unstable.
The ascent of Stob Coire Easain was fairly easy & didn't take very long, not quite sure how these 2 are classed as separate munro's
Distance & descent didn't seem very far
- One of the few obvious paths!
- The Grey Corries?
- Looking back to Stob a'Choire Mheadhoin
- The selfie on the summit of Stob Coire Easain
One of my recent purchases was one of those flexible plastic tripods & as I had carried it all the way up 2 summits, I decided it was time to give it an airing
I was also quite proud of myself as I had read the instructions for my camera, just the relevant bit (of course), so the camera was set up & I had 10 seconds to dash into pose position, which took 2 attempts, but we won't go into that
- The face of concentration
- Going down - carefully
Once off the ridge we reached the large trig & decided to follow the path, the other option was to head towards the track at the edge of the loch, which looked doable
We followed the path but it seemed to be heading towards the wee loch on the other side of the car park & as we decided to head to the track we will never know where it eventually finishes
Yet another great day out in good walking weather, bit breezy & the occasional spot or two of rain, Karen made the executive decision to leave the waterproofs in the bags, turned out to a good one
Thanks to Karen for her great company & of course dinner at the Kings Hotel in Glencoe, my first visit there - Karen is a regular & knew her way through the hotel