beinn ghlass & lawers (not quite)

[delberto]

Greetings...

Decided to go up Ghlass and lawers today from the visitors centre.
The outlook wasnt too bad as the temp at the visitors centre showed 12 degrees.
Not much of a wind to note at the time. Visibility was not too bad but cloud covered the last few hundred feet of ghlass and lawers.

Set off as described in the route and headed up the nature trail. Path clearly seen and in good condition. No mishaps then got to the main gate which leads to the main part of the climb away from the nature reserve.

Through the gate and then a steady plod or in my case a not so steady plod onwards and upwards.

Gate leaving the reserve looking onto the start of ghlass

As i went on there was a few scattered snow/ice patches still.
The wind then really started to pick up and vis started to drop. Sleet stated and stung at my face from this point on.
Being a trooper i plodded on deftly (daftly) and made my way to the summit of bein ghlass.

Stopped and had a look over to lawers and couldnt make out the summit. It was blowing big style at this point, so i scoffed my cheese pieces and plodded over to the base of lawers. It isnt a big distance to cover from Ghlass to Lawers. Upon getting to Lawers i saw some expierience mountatineer types having a sit down and contemplating wheather or not to go up. My heroics soon dried up and my sphynchter muscles started to give way a little. I did a quick 180 and marched back up to Ghlass.
As a novice It was tempting to notch up my 6th munro and do Lawers. However, its best to be prudent when your unsure of your capabilities and do an about turn.

Very disapointed that i couldnt get up Lawers. Its becoming a bit of a habbit now that i nearly do a munro and for one reason or another have to be sensible and turn about. Maybe my cheese pieces arent lucky enough... maybe i should change to spam or some exotic type of meat instead.

Hope you like the pics. Nice walk if its good weather.
Any hoosewives out there, if you take a clothes pole up to the summit of Ghlass today your washing would be dried withing a couple of mins.

[Raymond]

well done ya big feerty

maybe next time - that's all i keep saying to you,

[gammy leg walker]

Don"t worry big man they will be there the next time,best thing is you wont need to go over Beinn Ghlas to get to Ben Lawers,before you start the climb onto Beinn Ghlas a path skirts the NW slopes into Coire Odhar and meets the high bealach between Lawers and Ghlas,if you feel fit on the way back you could always try and climb Meall Corranaich from Coire Odhar then descend the way you came back to the NTS carpark

[Milesy]

Unfortunately both the last times I went up Lawers they were thwarted by the weather. It is a bastard of a hill!

[delberto]

yes milesy- i couldnt agree with you more mate
will do lawers from a different route next time i think.

ta

[delberto]

your suggestion sounds good gammylegwalker. im going to look into that.
thanks
del

[Freewheelin]

don't worry about it mate - me and my daughter were blown off it on a nice sunny July day a couple of years ago.

[brizo67]

Me and my mate Dave did Ben Ghlas and Lawyers last year,Ithough Ben Ghlas was tough going,its steep and a few false tops.The ridge over to Lawyers would have been great if you could see anything,we were unlucky with the weather too,not with snow but rain and low cloud,when we did manage to summit Lawyers it was very cold and again not a lot of views.We did'nt go back the way we came we took the route through into Coire Odhar which was much easier,next time we do Ben Lawyers were definately taking this route up and then down Ben Ghlas.

[HighlandSC]

Good effort, and well done for turning back. I've done the same recently on 2 outings - only summited 1 hill, it should have been 3. The mountains aint going anywhere.

[delberto]

good to know im not the only one affected by the weather out there. a few suggested routes for me to consider now. I thought Ghlass was not too bad to get up.I went down the ridge right to the bottom of lawers and then turned back- very tempting to go up though.
Thinking about stuc a chroin next weekend- anyone done that? went up vorlich last year and will probably go up from the start point at loch earn(south).any suggestions?

[gammy leg walker]

Hi big man,why don"t you try Stuc a" Chroin from Glen Ample,this gives you the chance to bag a wee corbett called Beinn Each also,you could also try and pick up from any good book shop 2 wee books I use as a reference from Cicerone called Walking The Munros split into 2 volumes,with you just starting out on your walking get volume 1 which covers South,Central and West Highlands,good luck

[Tenbob]

Walking The Munros split into 2 volumes,with you just starting out on your walking get volume 1 which covers South,Central and West Highlands,good luck

I'll second that.

[monty]

Hi Delberto,
The forecast strong winds meant I called of my Saturday walk at 1830 on Friday night and got **** instead
Good effort though