free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
After a short break in TR posting mainly due to my spinning head, it's time to catch up with the backlog. Today's report will take us to Stob a'Choire Odhair and Stob Ghabhar - "Gava and Ova" as I say sometimes. If there was ever any doubt whether a certain Eva can climb Ova and then traverse to Gava, it is gone now. She not only climbed both but had so much fun, laughing, meowing and jumping about, that her husband was close to putting her on a leash!
The reason for my uncontrolled giggling was a strange encounter and conversation we had on the ridge between the two hills, but we'll come to that
Kevin has done Gava and Ova before and in early spring when the ridge was still covered in snow, and he didn't remember anything difficult about them. Plus I was assured by other WH members that the ridge connecting the two mountains is not technically hard. So I was full of hope.
When we drove past Bridge of Orchy, Kevin said "I remember I wild camped here once - by the bridge". Well, I don't know if camping 100m from the village is actually WILD, but I kept quiet. Later there was more from him: "O, I remember walking that path" or "I remember crossing that stream". It was over 20 years since he visited the two Munros, but I guess hills don't age as quickly as people
So our route followed the standard approach to the duo, up Stob a'Choire Odhair first, then along the ridge to Stob Ghabhar. No scrambling required, just some steep and eroded sections of the path.
It was still cloudy when we started from the car park, but it was said to improve later in the afternoon.
Ready for adventure:
We walkled on the tarmac to Victoria Birdge and turned left by Forest Lodge. There is a board there with stalking info during the shooting season:
We overtook two young lads with full backpacks. I thought that they might be walking WHW but they turned left along Abhainn Shira as well. We were much faster with daypacks and going on the track was easy, our target hills looming above us:
The beginning of the path along Allt Toraig is very boggy:
...but the path improves later on and as we walked, weather began to improve, too:
There were other walkers heading for the hills and some of them overtook us for a change, when we stopped to take off extra tops (it was warming up nicely). So far, I have paid little attention to the two lads with backpacks, who were obviously following the crowd. Now I noticed that they also turned up Allt Toraig path and were aiming to climb the mountains. Will be hard work with those heavy sacks, I thought, but very soon I forgot about the Rucksack Duo and had to concentrate on fighting more bog:
The path goes into Corrie Toaig and then it divides, one branch heading for the col between the two Munros, the other climbs Stob a'Choire Odhair:
The climb to Ova is a bit of a slog really, but weather was clearing as we gained height and Stob Ghabhar across the glen looked splendid:
Higher up, the path is more rocky:
...but the views are so much better...
...that I didn't dare complain about anything...
...and soon we reached the summit of Stob a'Choire Odhair, where I posed for a traditional summit snap with wee Lucy:
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 073 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
We stopped on the summit for a longer break, conditions have improved. It was windy-ish and surprisingly cold as for summer, but we couldn't miss the opportunity for a lengthy photo session
North to Meall a'Bhuiridh and Creise, looking so close:
Glen Etive mountains (the big one I think is Ben Starav):
Stob Ghabhar in its full glory, waiting to be attacked!
View to the south:
Orchy Munros across Loch Tulla:
The vast emptiness of Rannoch Mor:
Really a superb viewpoint, and what's more important - so many of the hills here are still on our to-do list, so the subject of our conversation was mostly about which mountain will we do next and up which route, etc. I guess many of you have the very same issue - when up on the hills it is hard to talk about anything else but the hills. Every subject always comes down to "and next week if weather smiles we're going to climb Beinn Whatever" or "...and do you remember when we climbed Carn Blahblah and it was raining so heavily..."
We had something to eat and continued the traverse by descending via an obvious ridge towards Stob Ghabhar:
The descent was stony but no scrambling - so far so good. I was getting mentally ready for the final... wait, how much?... 500m of ascent
Looking back to Stob a'Choire Odhair:
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 121 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
From the lowest point of the ridge, the ascent route doesn't look too bad:
...but on closer inspection, we found some loose scree and generally, the path was eroded:
Kevin was mesmerized by Coire Lochain and the little loch at the bottom. The steep cliffs of Stob Ghabhar reminded us of Triple Buttress on Beinn Eighe:
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 137 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 141 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
Looking down from half way up the slope, with Ova to the right:
We reached a little "saddle" in the slope - from here, another 100m of ascent up to the ridge, called Aonach Eagach (the very sound of it makes me shiver
gulp!). As this photo shows, the slope is steep with some rocky /bouldery sections, but it actually looks worse than it is:
As we pushed on, we lost the path and charged straight up, there was enough grass to make the ascent easy:
View down to the corrie:
From the Aonach Eagach ridge, views are good in all directions, including south-east to Loch Tulla:
Having arrived on the ridge we stopped to have something to drink (we were all sweaty ant dehydrated after that steep push) and suddenly as we stood there sipping water, the two lads with big backpacks approached us. I was surprised (to say the least) when they stopped next to me and asked politely:
"Excuse me, is this the West Highland Way?"
Their accents definitely sounded foreign (I'd say French or maybe Dutch). I was so shocked I lost my tongue. I just stared at them with big eyes
Kevin saved the situation, taking out the map and showing the Rucksack Duo where we actually were. They seemed completely oblivious to the fact that they wandered miles away from WHW and that they arrived on a ridge 50m below the summit of a Munro. It turned out, that they saw us and other walkers going up the mountain path and followed, thinking that the whole crowd was also doing WHW. While we (and everybody else) clambered up the stalker's path to Stob a'Choire Odhair, they continued on the path to the col between the two Munros and then somehow made their way up Aonach Eagach. They only found out it was NOT the WHW when they met us again on the ridge. They had no map of the area and they looked exhausted - no wonder with such heavy load!
The Rucksack Duo and Aonach Eagach:
We had a look at each other. We knew we had to do something here, as these two were obviously lost. Having found out about their mishap, they looked rather scared. So we explained to them, with our map, how to get down the mountain. Sending them back down the steep slope we came up would be suicide, so we guided them to the Stob Maol shoulder and showed them the path that would later also be our descent route. We hoped that they would be able to follow that path and the slope back down into the glen, as weather was good and visibility was fine, too.
Stob Ghabhar in the sun:
The Aonach Eagach ridge:
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 183 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
The whole situation was so comical that I struggled to stay calm. The poor lads were very polite and they looked so embarrassed, that I didn't want to be rude and laugh in their face. But as soon as we separated, I began to giggle like mad
Giggling Panther on AE:
Looking back at the wider section of AE ridge:
The ridge itself was nothing technical, just walking on a narrow path. No problem.
Facing Stob Ghabhar:
AE and Ova from the final ascent:
Gazing down into the corrie below:
Still giggling, on the summit of my 212th Munro!
Some summit views:
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 205 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 215 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 217 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 221 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 223 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
Another pair of walkers arrived when we were sitting by the cairn. We started chatting and we simply could not stop ourselves from telling the story of the Rucksack Duo. We spent some time laughing together
Eventually, after a long rest on the summit, we began our descent down the Stob Maol shoulder. The path is obvious, it follows a line of old fence posts:
Following the instructions from WH walk description, we crossed Allt Coire na Muic above the waterfalls:
The final descend by the falls is on very eroded path, care should be taken here:
The upper waterfalls. Kevin again was joking about skinny dipping, but someone was already there waiting for his turn
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 241 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
A few snaps of the falls:
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 254 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 258 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
2017-07-08 stob ghabhar 263 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
The path eventually descends to Allt Toaig, crossing the gorge of the river. We scrambled out of the gorge to the path on other side, where to our content, we spotted the Rucksack Duo making their way back to the track. So they got down safely. Uffff.
Looking back at the slope and the waterfalls:
Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh from Abhainn Shira:
As we walked back to the car park, I admired the line of the Dorain/Dothaidh ridge. Kevin suggested that next time we come to Bridge of Orchy to climb them - he hasn't done them either. So the next Sunday saw us marching up Coire an Dothaidh, but this is a subject for another story