I slept in the car in a layby just off the Glen Etive road, close to the start of the path. Early start at 5:20am. Just crossing the boggy approach around the cottage and my back went in to spasm, faffed around with some anti-inflamm tablets, made a quick assessment and decided to continue. The walk up the North ridge of Ben Starav is unrelenting and starting from sea level gives 1100m of hard work early on. The summit of Ben Starav was in cloud but the walk continued over rocks and boulders to the summit. I was careful in the summit and checked bearing to ensure i didn't miss the descent route down the NE ridge. There is a small cairn and the red coloured scree path drops steeply off in a NE direction, when you see it is very clear but worth checking on the compass. Enjoyed the next 30 mins with a lovely ridge scramble across and over Stob Coire Dheirg to the Bealachan Lochain Ghaineamhaich. From here I took the path which traverses SSE down approx 150m over 1km and then the ascent of munro 2 - Beinn nan Aighenan. I must admit I felt a little lonely over here, very remote situation and the weather was getting a little more grim, rain had started. I climbed up into the cloud. I was surprised and very relieved to find that there was a very clear path all the way to the summit which I arrived on after the 400m ascent. Bizarly the first 3G signal for 2 days allowed me some comms back home. I retraced steps back to the Bealachan, left my bag and headed East up the slopes of Meall nan Tri Tighearnan and then the final munro of Glas Bheinn Mhor. The weather wasn't great now and I returned wet and cold in the building wind to the Bealachan and collected dropped gear. Amazing how quickly the atmosphere changes, I dropped steeply down due North on the path towards home and within minutes felt warm again. The walk down Allt nam Meirleach was beautiful, with steep sided gordges and falls. Some bog but pretty good path most of the way. At the bottom I crossed the river (which I have subsequently found out has a foot bridge further down) and then across the boggy approach field/path, around the cottage and back to the car.
I really enjoyed the day out, it was very quiet with no other walkers out. A very remote feel and potential for navigation skills in poor visibility.