The book says that parking is difficult for this hill but we (Roy Tugwell, Graeme and myself) struck lucky by parking on the last piece of grass verge next to the Ben Lawers Inn. Down by the cottage where the walk starts they were charging £5 a day for parking. Pretty steep though you can't blame the owner for taking advantage of a situation.
Up the track leading to Machuim Farm which becomes a directed path after the farmhouse, then over a locked gate and two huge "staircase" stiles and you are in open country. The books suggest you can either make off anywhere to climb onto the ridge or wait till you reach the tributary stream and follow it uphill. The latter was on us before we knew where we were so the choice was easy. Initially we made our way up the rocks of the burn then moved onto grass on our left. Others we saw climbing way up on
the right but I'm not sure that was any better than us. Whichever way you go it's a fairly easy, steady drag up to the ridge. Graeme was again slow on the grass but did not seem so concerned about it. Usual path on the ridge and with the weather still glorious it made for a very pleasant walk upwards. From here looking down we could see that there was a prominent path on the right (looking down) of the stream we had climbed, right up on the top of the river cleft and higher up than where we had climbed. We could also see at the same place a trackway but it was clear that this led well away from where we would want to go. A little bonus on reaching the top - I had forgotten to calibrate my altimeter and it was a nice surprise to reach the summit 100 metres before I thought we would. Guinness and sandwiches. Quite a crowd at this summit and all jolly. Curiously the Welshman we had met yesterday also turned up and we all had a great chat. Good views of Schiehallion from here.
Coming off Meall Greigh is very easy and must be one of the gentlest slopes we have experienced. A stranger coming the other way asked if I was the Guinness man. It seems the Welsh guy was telling everyone about the guy who drank Guinness on the summits. Roy soon fell way behind and at the bottom of one slope we could see he was limping badly. We put it down to stiffening up on the summit but after a while he told us he would have to call it a day. He was OK going up and on the level but his knee was giving him considerable pain going downhill. Perhaps we were being uncharitable but neither Graeme nor myself made any effort to ask if he wanted company. Not that Roy would have wanted to spoil our day - Would have been nice though if we had suggested it. As it was we accompanied him to the col and left him with instructions to make for the trackway and then to veer off onto the path going
down by the stream.
The book says that navigation to this col could be difficult in mist but there is a path and even if you miss this there is a new fence to the right which goes over the col and right up the hill, so you can't get lost. A fairly steep drag for most of the way up the path next to the fence (how do they get the wood up here?) but it levels off towards the summit giving an easy final walk to the top. Again lots of people. Being such a glorious day and a Saturday there were dozens of folk around the hills.
The path off Meall Garbh is over rockier slopes and is a pleasant stroll down. The drop to the base of An Stuc seemed awful short. From here the climb up did not seem half as fearsome as it had seemed from views earlier in the day when it looked impossibly steep. We could also see a path threading its way up but could not tell where the mild scrambling, promised by the book, was. A guy, having a rest, said there was a junction about halfway up but had no idea which route was best. Graeme went ahead as usual up a very steep path which got steeper as you got higher until reaching an area where there seemed to be several options. To the left it looked like a gully; in front a rock; while to the right was a fissure/cleft. We waited while three guys came down. They were having problems but eventually two of them came down the cleft. The third, ignoring Graeme's advice on footholds went back up and as
Graeme later said, went to the other side of the hill and came down on an easier route. I followed Graeme and with great difficulty got myself to a point where there was a large rock. Graeme, now above it, said he had found it difficult but there was no way I could see I could get over or round it. I'm just not flexible any more. Panic set in as the climb to this point, steep and eroded, had been hard and I was not sure I could get back down. However, as always, going down is easier for me, despite the steepness and the dodginess of the grass clods I was gripping. Back at the junction I gave the fissure a try and although apprehensive, I found it climbable. A couple of times I had to go to two points of contact to get my knees up and I know I pushed lots of earth down onto the guys who had come down, but I got there. After this the path was still steep, needing hands as well as feet but straightforward and I was soon at the summit where I flopped down on the cairn, exhausted. One puzzle I have about this is that most books I have read say that this is a steep grassy scramble, not advisable in the wet and cold. But what I climbed was rock and on a very distinctive path. Did I miss another way? Strange phenomenon on the summit when Graeme pointed out a huge circle round the hazy sun - with sunglasses on the circle appeared to be black. Yet more crowds here, all wanting to know what it was like on the other side of An Stuc, a really good day for friendly people. Whilst this hill was quite an experience to climb and I'm pleased to have done so, I cannot understand how it has managed to get munro status. The fall from Meall Garbh and the climb up are so short that it is hardly a climb and is not by my reckoning a munro.
Down to the foot of Ben Lawers and moved off down to the left, initially on a faint path then on very steep grassy slopes to the Lochan na Cat. The book says walk round the north side of the Lochan but we found it easier and shorter to go round the south side, Graeme by the water and me on a path higher up. A path starts at the end of the Lochan, is extremely good and goes all the way down to the trackway. The path off this track going to the stream (as seen from the ridge) is marked by a small cairn. It is one of the nicest paths I have been on, easy and at times like walking on lawn grass. It feels as if it has been made specifically for a purpose, stalkers perhaps. Eventually it winds down to the burn and over a little bridge, near the spot we originally left to climb the first hill. A straightforward but tiring walk back down to the road and uphill to the car where we met Roy, who had again met the ubiquitous Welshman and was sharing a pint.
_0.jpg)