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Stob Coire Easain from Loch Treig

Munros: Stob Coire Easain

Date walked: 10/09/2021

Time taken: 3.5 hours

My friend Sarah is busy ticking off Munros and since we were going to be staying with a big group at the Loch Ossian hostel over the weekend she decided to head along earlier on Friday and bag the two Easain Munros from Loch Treig. I was the only one free to go along so after a stealth camp on the shore of Loch Rannoch we set off on bikes. I am not much of a cyclist so found the pull up the track from Rannoch Station on a heavily laden bike pretty tough going. After 10 miles we reached the hostel and very gratefully dumped most of the weight off our bikes then cycled on to Loch Treig which is very low at the moment. We carried along until we reached the point where the path was so rough that being on a bike didn't make us any faster so we ditched them and carried on to the boarded up white house on the loch shore. There was a party there enjoying a picnic who were staying at the Corrour Lodge. We had a chat and when they heard we were staying at the hostel one of them declared "Oh that's supposed to be the most beautiful hostel in England!". :roll: They looked the sorts to know if there was any stalking going on in the vicinity and they said there wasn't so we were all good from that point of view.

The path continued on through a short but very pretty gorge then we forded the small river and headed up the flank of Stob Coire Easain. This was NOT easy going. If there is any kind of path we certainly didn't find it and it was just a straight up and pretty steep. It was warm, still and muggy so we were beset by swarms of those wretched deer flies. At around 800m we were in clag but at least the gradient eased. Then followed an endless slog up the ridge. Everytime what looked like it might be the top loomed out of the mist Sarah would check her altimeter and say "Nope, not yet". We couldn't see a thing but heard plenty of bird calls. Eventually the cairn was visible and we threw ourselves down beside it. "I think I can safely say that we really earned this summit" I said, secretly hoping that Sarah would decide not to bother with the second top as it was 3:30pm by this point and we'd been on the go for rather a long time. "I don't think we should do the other one" said Sarah (Thank **** I thought) "It'll add another hour on and I'll just do it from Fersit another time". Sensible choice as we still had to get back down and all it would take was a twisted ankle to make life rather tricky.

We went down pretty much the same way we came up although I think we did find a slightly better line down the steep bit. It was a relief to get out under the cloud base but it was back into swarms of insects again. I was very happy to see the bikes again but less happy when we ended up pushing them all the way back up the hill from the lochside before eventually being able to freewheel down to the Hostel. We'd been moving for 9 hours by this point so were very pleased to stop, have a shower and be treated to a fine meal of pasta bolognaise with wine that our friends had lugged in on the train. I then had one of the best night's sleep of my life!

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Stob Binnein - my first wintry munro experience

Attachment(s) Munros: Stob Binnein
Date walked: 07/05/2021
Distance: 16km
Ascent: 1443m
Comments: 3
Views: 1531

njdunn


Activity: Stravaiging
Place: Aberfoyle
Member: Carnethy HRC

Munros: 60
Corbetts: 8
Fionas: 1
Wainwrights: 6
Hewitts: 13



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Statistics

2021

Trips: 2
Distance: 16 km
Ascent: 1443m
Munros: 2


Joined: May 11, 2017
Last visited: Mar 13, 2024
Total posts: 5 | Search posts