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Another stunning day
Looking down Loch Earn from St. FillansBeing fundamentally a rather lazy bugger I normally climb this hill - which I do quite often - from the head of Glen Ogle as (a) it is only a short drive and (b) you get a start of nearly 300m
From the big car park on the East side I nip behind Glen Ogle cottages on to the old railway and head North.
You can take the first track on the Left, but it's very boggy and at the end you have to climb through a hole in a very ricketty deer fence
so I think it's marginally quicker to continue and take the larger track further on. - NB. an extra track not shown on the map has just been created for harvesting
Where the track branches, the forest is quite open and there are good views down Loch Tay and across Glen Dochart
Lawers GroupSgiath Chuil - what a difference a good covering of snow makes A lot of the forest has been cleared here and Ben More and Stobinian soon appear.The track seems to comes to an end, but a path pushes on through the trees and after a short while joins the main track up Glen Dubh You come out of the woods on to the main track, which heads L through a gate and on up the glen at an agreeable angle with pleasant views back across Glen Dochart Looking in the other direction Meall an Fhiodian - an outlier of Meall an-t- Seallaidh - fills the horizonThe slopes of Creag Mac Ranaich above the 600m top of the pass are too steep for a direct ascent (in winter anyway): I have never found a path as there isn't really any particularly good route, but I usually leave the track a hundred metres or so before the high point. The summit is on the extreme L (North ) end of a long ridge, but unfortunately the terrain consists of rightward sloping ramps, so that you are continually climbing diagonally away from your objective
The snow was firm - seriously icy near the top - and it seemed a long 220 m of ascent , but the views were splendid
The top comes into sightCloser]
Meall an-t-SeallaidhThe little knob below and immediately L of Stobinian is the Graham The Stob I thinkLooking down Glen DochartZoomed - I had to draw a lot of lines on the map to work this out, but the low peak on the Left is Fiarach with parts of the Ben Lui Group behind. R of that is Beinn a Bhuiridh, and the unmistakeable spikes of Cruachan (50km away). In front - in the sun - is Beinn Chuirn: Meall Odhar is further R with Beinn Eunaich behind itBeinn Challuim on the L with Beinn nan Imrean in front of it. Meall Glas and Beinn Cheathaich centre R with the higher hills - Creag Mhor and Beinn Sheasgarnaich - at the back North across Loch TayVorlich and Stuc a ChroinThe wider view includes Beinn EachDescentIt's not elegant, it's not pretty and it's not even terribly enjoyable, but by far the quickest way back to base (an hour in good conditions) is head north down the watershed and peel off R directly down the boggy hillside towards the car park.
If you keep to the far L at the bottom there are no fences to cross .
EDIT Nov 2018
Now I would descend by "superdirect"
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=85410 The North side was very icy and I had some difficulty with the first 20m of the descent - even with a short ice axe. I normally go down this broad gully and then keep leftish, but this time it was far too icy to get into, so Ifollowed some footsteps over the knoll to its R, and kept on the South side of the stream for a bit. There was nice firm neve for quite a whileLooking back to the topAfternoon sunshine on Tayside An evening view of Vorlich from near the pass