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How I had gotten to this point in my Munroing career without doing Ben Lui was a bit of a mystery to me, not to mention to many of my fellow walking acquaintances, so the Tyndrum meet seemed like the ideal opportunity to do something about that. Early November should afford just about enough daylight hours to grab what the SMC book calls "one of the finest mountains in the Southern Highlands" with "an Alpine character" as well as the little less vaunted Beinn a'Cleibh next door without having to resort to head torches.
Nathan had similar ideas and so after a relatively tame Friday evening by WH meet standards, we set off from the bunkhouse just after 9am. No need for vehicular transport at all for this one - just climb up the steps to Tyndrum Lower Station, nip across the level crossing and onto the track that rises and then descends through the forestry on the eastern and southern flanks of Sron nan Colan before emptying you out into Glen Cononish about a click and a half short of the farm.
- Beinn Odhar from just above Tyndrum Lower Station
- Beinn Chuirn above Cononish Farm, Lui lurking in the background
It was a straightforward yomp along the track to its sudden termination at the Allt an Rund crossing below the yawning jaws of the great north east coire of Lui, Coire Gaothach, during which time Nathan regaled me with tales from this years Chamonix trip. I was not one bit jealous!
- Lui from near the end of the track
This would be my first serious undertaking since the 16 hour epic on the Beinn Dearg hills in July, so I took a deep breath or two before beginning the climb up into the coire. I needn't have worried too much - clearly the outing with Kev on An Dun a fortnight or so ago had taken the edge off my lack of recent hill time.
- Coire Gaothaich
- Nathan above Glen Cononish
We tracked upwards beside the stream that comes out of the coire, Nathan seeming to be exhibiting even more hill rustiness than myself. My quiz for that evening, and in particular the song lyrics round, was in my mind and for some reason the Kaiser Chiefs song Ruby (not one of the lyrics although another KC song lyric did feature) got lodged in my mind, but with Ruby being replaced by Lui!
Two walkers ahead of us were preferring different approach routes in the higher reaches of the coire - one was heading right up onto Stob Garbh while the other seemed to prefer a more direct approach up the headwall in the far left hand corner of the vast coire. We opted to follow in the footsteps of the former.
- Cloud clearing a bit over the coire headwall
- Sunshine on Chuirn
- In the heart of the vast Coire Gaothaich
- Back down Glen Cononish
- Ben Oss across Stob an Tighe Aird
- Climbing up onto the Stob Garbh ridge
Once onto the Stob Garbh ridge above the wee lochan, it became pretty clear that the sun, which had been fighting a valiant battle all morning against the cloud, did not have the strength to see it off and was doomed to failure. Oddly enough, I was not at all unhappy at the current state of affairs. Despite the lack of expansive views, it was a wonderful walk and the swirling low cloud merely added to the atmosphere. Mythical was the phrase Nathan used. Perhaps he should have taken it a bit easier on the whiskey last night after all!
- On Stob Garbh
- Ben Oss again
- Stob Garbh, Beinn Chuirn, Meall Odhar and Glen Cononish
- Clag closing in on Nathan
- Near the top of the Stob Garbh ridge
- Nathan reaching the apex of the ridge
We met a couple coming off the summit just before the last pull up to the north top and they told has they had got Brocken Spectres at the summit. It certainly felt like a day for them.
- Figures at the North Top
- Nathan making tracks for the M point
Sadly no Brocken Spectres were seen at the summit - only two Spanish blokes who were huddled amongst the rocks for shelter. To my knowledge this is the first time I have shared a Munro summit with Spaniards. Not a breed one often tends to come across on the Munros in my experience. Things were so clagged in now that we didn't even see the massive blue bird indicated on my OS sheet!
- Summit of Lui perched precariously on the cliff edge
- First Munro in almost 4 months!
We managed to find a reasonably sheltered spot for lunch but it was still bitter and Nathan in particular got a severe chill in his paws by the time we packed up and headed off to try and pick up the path to Cleibh.
The best of the day was now clearly behind us, in terms of the walk itself and the weather. Little was seen of Cleibh itself, except for a few fleeting glimpses of the norther flanks falling away towards Glen Lochay.
- Beinn a'Cleibh rising out of the cloud
- Glen Lochay and Beinn na Sroine
After a quick photo or two and some more jelly babies at the unremarkable summit, the lure of cheesy chips and beer had us retracing our steps back towards Ben Lui for the long descent back into Glen Cononish.
- Summit of Cleibh
We missed the descent path back down onto Stob Garbh (too busy looking for that enormous blue bird again!
) but it wasn't an issue as it would allow us to drop down behind and to the north of the Stob Garbh ridge for the descent back to the Allt an Rund. It was an awkward descent with some craggy and slabby sections to negotiate before we reached the relative comfort of the track which carried us back to Tyndrum and our cheesy chips and beer, just in time to avoid the need for the head torches.