by Handknittedbagger » Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:22 pm
Date walked: 09/10/2014
Time taken: 3.5 hours
Distance: 9.8 km
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Decided to climb these three Munros as a second choice after our meeting with authority in Glen Lyon, Invervar, detailed in my forum post on deer stalking.
Arrived at the Ben Lawers Hotel a little later than we would usually set out, due to the detour to Invervar, the car park was deserted!
Weather looked ok, although the higher slopes were in cloud. As usual it was Susan and I along with dog, Bo.
I had downloaded the route from this site onto Viewranger and followed the instructions to the start of the climb.
We had climbed Ben Lawers/Beinn Ghlas a couple of weeks ago and wish now that we had continued and done these when there, but decided to complete them today.
The climb started out fine with the instructions clear and accurate and the path well defined. Once out of the tree line and into the open however, the path quickly disappeared and we were left looking at the GPS constantly and deciding which sheep track was the path indicated on the map. we gave up this approach after a while and decided just to head straight up the mountain and although we crossed what should have been the path according to the GPS, we were unable to actually see any path. With the absence of a path, we were climbing across open grassland and actually felt it quite grueling and hard going. the sun was out and it was pleasantly warm, although the wind was getting up a little and there was always the potential for rain.
It was by far the dullest and least interesting climb that we have encountered yet, added to which the cloud stayed relatively low and we never caught sight of any of the summits around.
We reached the summit of Meall Greigh, took the obligatory pictures and after a brief discussion decided to head straight back down, back to the hotel and call it a day.
Whilst we are prepared that every mountain might not have a clearly defined path clear to the summit, this hill in particular had no path whatsoever apart from at the very outset. I would be wary of attempting it if there was poor visibility.
it is another one bagged, but not one that i would be rushing to return to.