On the morning of 30 April 2005 Frank and I were to meet Alex and Paul at the parking where the River Falloch joins the A82 in Glen Falloch. But by coincidence both pairs of walkers had decided to buy a few provisions in the Crianlarich shop and thus we shook hands and hugged each other on the doorstep of the shop. From there we drove to the parking by the A82. The weather was fine and the sun shone for much of the day. We started the walk up the landrover track beside the River Falloch but soon left it and headed south over the open and slightly wet grassland up the slope leading to Sron Garbh. The gradient of this slope gets steeper the higher up you get but at about 700m the ridge levels off and Sron Garbh is reached. There we paused, drank some water and enjoyed the views of Cruach Ardrain, Ben More and the other hills surrounding us. Our foursome continued over the bumps of Twistin Hill to the point where the final rise to the summit ridge of An Caisteal was waiting for us. We had mistaken the rocks above us for the summit proper which is a few hundred metres further to the south. With the summit in sight we took another break to eat a sandwich and a few bisquits. Then we walked on to the summit of An Caisteal, the first Munro. After a short while we left the cairn and followed the path down An Caisteal’s south-east ridge. Here the terrain changed markedly. The hitherto grassy ridge gave way to crags and – further down – boulders through which the path weaves to the col below Beinn a’Chroin. The west face of this hill is quite steep and we could not really tell where exactly the route ahead would lead up the hill. We soon found out that the path rises over the grassy south-west slope of Beinn a’Chroin traverses some rocky steps needing a bit of handwork … [Read More]

On the morning of 30 April 2005 Frank and I were to meet Alex and Paul at the parking where the River Falloch joins the A82 in Glen Falloch. But by coincidence both pairs of walkers had decided to buy a few provisions in the Crianlarich shop and thus we shook hands and hugged each other on the doorstep of the shop. From there we drove to the parking by the A82. The weather was fine and the sun shone for much of the day. We started the walk up the landrover track beside the River Falloch but soon left it and headed south over the open and slightly wet grassland up the slope leading to Sron Garbh. The gradient of this slope gets steeper the higher up you get but at about 700m the ridge levels off and Sron Garbh is reached. There we paused, drank some water and enjoyed the views of Cruach Ardrain, Ben More and the other hills surrounding us. Our foursome continued over the bumps of Twistin Hill to the point where the final rise to the summit ridge of An Caisteal was waiting for us. We had mistaken the rocks above us for the summit proper which is a few hundred metres further to the south. With the summit in sight we took another break to eat a sandwich and a few bisquits. Then we walked on to the summit of An Caisteal, the first Munro. After a short while we left the cairn and followed the path down An Caisteal’s south-east ridge. Here the terrain changed markedly. The hitherto grassy ridge gave way to crags and – further down – boulders through which the path weaves to the col below Beinn a’Chroin. The west face of this hill is quite steep and we could not really tell where exactly the route ahead would lead up the hill. We soon found out that the path rises over the grassy south-west slope of Beinn a’Chroin traverses some rocky steps needing a bit of handwork … [Read More]

Ben More and Stob Binnein (2004-05-13). We had shyed away from doing these two hills on the second day of our vacation as the weather had been uncertain and we wanted to make sure that we would get the most out of the circuit of these two famous Munros. So, after having completed six exhausting walks that week we finally set out to climb the biggest Ben More in Scotland. Us being keen on a good ridge walk and not only on bagging the two hills we had decided to do the full circle of Coire Chaorach.

We started just east of the bridge over the Allt Coire Chaorach on the A85. The track there lead into the fir plantations. After about fifteen minutes we reached the burn and crossed it by some stepping stones. The track then climbed uphill with some steep and some slightly boggy sections. There must have been some path improvements in recent years because it did not require good boots and a sense of humour (Storer) to reach the forrest edge. From that point we struck a line up the corrie heading in a south-easterly direction to join the ridge by means of an obvious grass slope leading up to Leacann Raibhach. Once on the ridge we continued in a south-westerly direction until, after some prodding around in the clouds, we reached the cairn of Stob Creagach. The terrain was a little confusing, since the ridge is quite knobby and visibility was limited to about 50 to 100 metres in the clouds. Nonetheless we decided that no real threat of getting lost existed since even our modest navigational skills should allow us to stick to a south-westerly direction and to keep clear of the steep slopes above Coire Chaorach.

The next kilometre the ridge was even more rocky and knobby. We had some route-finding difficulties but made it to the summit of Meall na Dige alright. Soon we descended a few metres to a flatter section, the bealach between this hill and Stob Coire an Lochain. Below … [Read More]

Ben More and Stob Binnein (2004-05-13). We had shyed away from doing these two hills on the second day of our vacation as the weather had been uncertain and we wanted to make sure that we would get the most out of the circuit of these two famous Munros. So, after having completed six exhausting walks that week we finally set out to climb the biggest Ben More in Scotland. Us being keen on a good ridge walk and not only on bagging the two hills we had decided to do the full circle of Coire Chaorach.

We started just east of the bridge over the Allt Coire Chaorach on the A85. The track there lead into the fir plantations. After about fifteen minutes we reached the burn and crossed it by some stepping stones. The track then climbed uphill with some steep and some slightly boggy sections. There must have been some path improvements in recent years because it did not require good boots and a sense of humour (Storer) to reach the forrest edge. From that point we struck a line up the corrie heading in a south-easterly direction to join the ridge by means of an obvious grass slope leading up to Leacann Raibhach. Once on the ridge we continued in a south-westerly direction until, after some prodding around in the clouds, we reached the cairn of Stob Creagach. The terrain was a little confusing, since the ridge is quite knobby and visibility was limited to about 50 to 100 metres in the clouds. Nonetheless we decided that no real threat of getting lost existed since even our modest navigational skills should allow us to stick to a south-westerly direction and to keep clear of the steep slopes above Coire Chaorach.

The next kilometre the ridge was even more rocky and knobby. We had some route-finding difficulties but made it to the summit of Meall na Dige alright. Soon we descended a few metres to a flatter section, the bealach between this hill and Stob Coire … [Read More]

The first hill in Scotland in 2004. Around noon our plane had landed at Edinburgh Airport. Two hours later we reached the parking at the dam of Loch Turret. The routine of getting our stuff togehter before the walk had become a little rusty. It took us some time to get things going but finally we were on our way along the land-rover track on the east side of Loch Turret. The going was easy, the weather was warm, the sun shone. As expected we made good progress and reached Lochan Uaine after about an hour and fifteen minutes. The broken cliffs of Ben Chonzie high above the lochan did not look boring at all. At least not to us: a year (and more) of abstinence from all Scottish hills helped us enjoy this undemanding Munro. A snack and some water and off we went heading for the col between Biorach a’ Mheannain and Ben Chonzie. The grassy back wall of the corrie is steep below the col. Once at the col we turned left and climbed steadily for maybe another 20 minutes until we saw the cairn of Ben Chonzie. There we congratulated each other on our first hill of the year, looked around identifying hills further to the west and north and had another little meal by the cairn. The hill’s a good viewpoint. We continued our tour around Loch Turret by following the grassy ridge which has some stretches of open peat and can be boggy in places. At Carn Chois we paused again. Nice views of the Loch below and the sky above. It had become a little colder and windier on the ridge. A few hundred metres after the summit of Carn Chois we picked a line down into the grassy corrie leading to the loch and the track on its west side which took us back to the dam and the car. Easy walk, good weather, nice start for a week of hill walking in the Southern Highlands. (2004-05-07)

Ben Lui. The great hill of the Southern Highlands. The cradle of Scottish winter mountaineering. The symmetrical monarch of the Cononish Glen. Jokes aside this hill proved to be one of the really interesting ones even though we walked it under an almost continuously closed cover of clouds the base of which lingered at around 800 m. As the starting point we had opted for the parking of the lower station at Tyndrum. We walked along the forrest road on the low slopes of Sron nan Colan until we reached the junction with the land-rover track up Glen Cononish.

We passed the farm and continued up the glen up to the point where the land rover track turns into a path that crosses the Allt an Rund and heads up over steep ground into Coire Gaothach. Magnificent corrie even when the upper parts of Ben Lui’s ridge are not visible. We continued up the bowl of the corrie and aimed left for the point in the skyline where the rocky North-East ridge becomes really steep above Stob an Tighe Aird. The weather not being really agreeable we decided not to climb to the summt directly but rather to cross the shallow corrie further east, climb its headwall and gain the easy ridge leading up to the summit all the way from the Ben Lui/Ben Oss col.

A little rain set in on the final metres before the summit but it subsided again. Sitting in the clouds at the summit cairn we had a snack and took in the few (rather vertical) views that could be had of Coire Gaothach below. We then followed the ridge to the second summit of Ben Lui and started our return walk down the north-west ridge which was steep on the first few hundred metres. Soon we reached the col before Stob Garbh and walked down the path into the corrie where the path back down to the Allt an Rund, Cononish farm and finally Tyndrum was regained. A grey day on a beautiful hill … [Read More]