KYQ4: Stob Ban and Cruach Innse

Stob Ban

2 August 2016

Ascent: 1276 metres

Distance: 19 kilometres

Time: 6 hours 9 minutes

Larich Leachach 470m 1hr 29mins (1/8/16)

Stob Ban 977m 2hrs 37minsLarich Leacach 470m 3hrs 50mins

Cruach Innse 857m 4hrs 58mins

After the walk the previous day, I drove up to Corriechoille from Spean Bridge. It was a beautiful summer's evening, the clouds had disappeared and there was a warmth in the air that meant I could dispense with a jacket. After packing some gear I set out to walk to the Lairig Leacach Bothy where I would camp for the night. I had some notion to climb Stob Ban and watch the sunset on a clear evening but it was 8:15pm when I reached the bothy and I spent 15 minutes with the inmates after being told to close the door and keep the midges out. There is no such thing as a typical collection of individuals in a bothy. There were three middle-aged men on a week's walking holiday from England and an 18-year-old girl who had succumbed to Munro madness and was keen to finish before she was 21. Another man who worked with Ordnance Survey and had recently begun to climb the munros, despite living in Southampton, had already retreated to his tent.

I pitched my tent beside the burn so I could enjoy the soothing rippling of water as I dozed off. Even though it was not yet 9:30pm I turned in, feeling remarkably comfortable having escaped the midges. The next morning I was walking just after 7am and true to the forecast there were blue skies but clouds were gathering in the west. There is a reasonable path up the ridge to Stob Ban that leaves the track a couple of hundred metres south of the bothy. It is a steep climb for 200 metres and then there is a pleasant level section below the ridge before the final steep ascent to the summit. I could see a walker ahead of me and presumed that it was the walker from the tent next to me, was my snoring that bad? I had just about caught him by the summit although he had been carrying a full rucksack and I had travelled with nothing but a camera and mars bar. We spent 15 minutes or so discussing his plan for the day and the business plan of Ordnance Survey. He was on a week's walking holiday and wanted to climb the Mamores. The weather was not promising so he decided to walk over the path to Kinlochleven, get a bed for a night and hope for better weather tomorrow.

I decided to descend the quartzite screes to the north as I had done on four previous occasions. It is steep and tricky particularly in the wet. The loose blocks of quartzite are not easy on the feet and there is a sense that there could be an avalanche at some point. I reached the bealach where Gregor and I had camped in 2001 on a rain soddened night with surface water passing through the tent in the early hours. The descent back is down the corrie and the path, although boggy in places, allows a quick return to the bothy. It was still not 9:30am so I packed the tent and gear, a wind had sprung up so the midges were in abeyance, and finished a strange breakfast of couscous and banana before setting out for Cruach Innse as the grey clouds began to sweep over the Grey Corries.

The climb was far quicker than expected, it was a couple of kilometres back along the drove road and then a climb to the broad bealach between Sgurr Innse and Cruach Innse. There is a fine climb threading through the rock bands until reaching the broad summit ridge. I arrived just before the clouds engulfed the summit and didn't stay long enough to become immersed in the cloud. I made a fairly direct descent to the track. On reflection this was probably a mistake, I should have headed to the outlying hill Cnoc nan Ceann Mora, which would have been far gentler and kinder to the legs. I was back at the car before 12:30pm, well ahead of my schedule. My original intention was to drive round to Kinlochleven and climb another Corbett but the rains had started by the time I reached Onich so I headed home.