Ben Lawers

It has been a disappointing year for hillwalking in Scotland, despite being retired I have managed only 9 days on the Scottish hills. I had assumed on retirement that I would continue to average 60 plus munros a year as well as lots of other types of walking in the UK and further afield. Admittedly I have spent 2 weeks on Europe's best long-distance mountain walk in Corsica. Perhaps it is also the knowledge that I can choose to go out on the good days or simply that I have lost the momentum to hammer the hills at the weekend as an antidote to work. So after three weeks of rain and low cloud, I seized the first opportunity of reasonable weather to test myself on the nearest big walk: the seven munros that form the Ben Lawers range of hills.

Thursday, 29 July 2010 
Distance: 30km, start and finish at Ben Lawers visitor centre
Ascent:    2120metres,
Time:       9hours 23minutes
Weather:  Clouds on the tops and showers in the morning, clearing and bright sun by late afternoon
Outing:    The day progressively improved and provided a reprise of all that is good about long ridge walks

Looking east to Beinn Ghlas from Ben Lawers

Ben Lawers, An Stuc and Meall Garbh from Meall Greigh

Meall Greigh from Meall Garbh

Munro/ Top                       Height      Time

Meall a' Choire Leith          926m       1hr  51mins
Meall Corranaich               1069m      2hrs 42mins
Beinn Ghlas                       1103m      3hrs 18mins
Ben Lawers                       1214m      3hrs  48mins
Creag an Fhithich               1047m      4hrs  29mins
An Stuc                             1118m      5hrs    0mins
Meall Garbh                      1118m      5hrs  40mins
Meall Greigh                     1001m      6hrs  36mins

I drove to the Ben Lawers car park and started walking at the back of 9am. Although I had done these seven hills before I had usually arranged to be picked up at Lawers thus saving a long 11km trek back to the car from Meall Greigh.  It was an easy but brisk walk up the well-graded tourist path before turning off and scooting up the two munros to the north of Ben Lawers. The ground was wet after recent rain but the blaeberries were abundant and provided a healthy snack whilst climbing steeply up the grass slopes in Coire Odhar to make the ridge leading to Meall Corranaich. I contoured around the summit to the west and then dropped to the bealach between this and the most northerly hill, Meall a' Choire Leith. Good time had been made to the summit where three other walkers were gathered.

After a quick stop for food and drink, I returned by the same route. The rain began and the cloud level dropped to 800 metres during the climb to Meall na Corranaich. There were quite a few walkers around the summit so I continued down the path to the bealach and threaded my way up the direct route to Beinn Ghlas. It was still in the cloud so there was no pause before turning to follow the well-trodden track to Ben Lawers as the skies began to clear.  I arrived ahead of schedule, it was not yet 1pm and 4 munros were in the bag.

Twenty minutes were spent soaking in the views, eating a sandwich, and making some phone calls before sauntering off on the path down to An Stuc.  This is the steepest mountain on the ridge and on an afternoon like this looked like a painting by a child or maybe David Hockney,  - a bright green isosceles triangle. I was walking well and stopped to chat for ten minutes with other walkers on the summit.  The descent is by a steep gulley which is badly eroded and was very loose after recent rain. It was a reminder of why this is such a severe test in winter conditions. Meall Garbh is a welcoming hill with a level ridge, festooned with fence posts meandering to the east and views opening up to the gentler Perthshire countryside. The ground was boggy from recent rain and I surrendered my pace to the bog cotton flags which waved in the breeze. Meall Greigh is a gentle lump at the end of the ridge but its soft dry summit was a perfect perch to eat an orange and admire the vista of Scottish mountains to the west and north.

And then the long return, first a long descent over grass and heather to the Lawers burn and then a southwestward walk along a level track above Loch Tay.  I stripped to my shorts as I headed into the glorious evening sun with Loch Tay shimmering in the angled light.  At the end of the track, it was necessary to cross a deep gorge and then climb back above 600 metres to a ridge below Beinn Ghlas. From here it was a long descent to the Ben Lawers car park, altogether this added two and a half hours to the outing, the last 45 minutes over rough mountainside with my legs and feet beginning to feel the effects of the long day. I was back by 6:30pm feeling pleased that I could still make a reasonable pace on the big walks which have been such an abiding feature of the past 21 years.