Date: Saturday 30th November 2019
Company: Myself and Ann-Marie
Distance: 18.2km, Ascent: 1255m
Time: 8Hrs 15Mins
On Saturday morning, we parked at the Lawers Hotel to undertake an ascent of Meall Greigh and Meall Garbh. At the time of writing this report there is a £5 charge to park in the hotel car park. I last ascended these Munros way back in May 1997.
Once suited and booted we set off walking along the A827 towards Kenmore.
Click here to see a map of the route undertaken
On reaching the Horn Carver shop we took the hill path leading into the Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve. The initial kilometre through the forestry was cold with limited views.
Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve:
On exiting the forest and looking back, the views were sublime! Loch Tay was covered with a layer of cloud inversion.
Pre-sunrise cloud inversion over Loch Tay:
I decided to increase my speed as I wanted to get as high as possible to witness the sunrise and I was also expecting the cloud inversion to lift due to the heat of the sun. I was wrong in this regard as the cloud inversion remained over the loch throughout the day.
Pre-sunrise view towards Loch Tay:
During the ascent I stopped to put on a balaclava as it was bitterly cold.
Hill ninja:
The sunrise was beautiful; one of the nicest views I have seen.
Here comes the sun (do do do do):
The warm light of the sun lit up nearby Ben Lawers, a Munro I have ascended four times previously.
View towards Ben Lawers and An Stuc:
I lost count of the number of times I stopped during the ascent to look back and admire the view. I took lots of photographs.
Stunning cloud inversion:
Cloud inversion over Loch Tay:
The ascent of Meall Greigh was nice and straight-forward. The ground was frozen solid but there was no need for crampons.
Ascending Meall Greigh:
It was great to reach the summit of Meall Greigh, the first Munro of the day. From the summit we could see Ben Lawers, An Stuc and our next hill target, Meall Garbh.
Ben Lawers, An Stuc and Meall Garbh from the summit of Meall Greigh:
Ann-Marie approaching the summit of Meall Greigh:
View from the summit of Meall Greigh:
The walk from Meall Greigh to Meall Garbh was also very straight-forward - a wide, grassy ridge links the two Munros.
At the col between Meall Greigh and Meall Garbh:
Looking back to Meall Greigh:
The final ascent of Meall Garbh had a thin covering of snow. In bad weather you could follow the fenceline between the hills.
Ascending Meall Garbh:
On reaching the summit of Meall Garbh, views were limited due to some of the cloud having lifted to the summits.
At the summit of Meall Garbh:
It had been my intention to now descend towards Lochan nan Cat, however I knew Ann-Marie was keen to also ascend An Stuc. I therefore agreed to continue down to the col between Meall Garbh and An Stuc for a closer look at An Stuc. During the descent, I suggested we put on crampons and get the axes out in preparation for an ascent. Ann-Marie was chuffed.
An Stuc:
The initial ascent of An Stuc was straight-forward, just a series of zig-zags. I also knew the upper section was similarly straight-forward. The mid-section however required care as it is steep and the path was covered in ice and compacted snow. The axe and crampons were extremely useful.
About to ascend An Stuc:
The difficulties were short-lived and we were soon once again on easy ground making our way to the summit.
Just below the summit of An Stuc:
At the summit of An Stuc:
From the summit of An Stuc we continued on to the col between An Stuc and Creag an Fhithich, a Munro Top of Ben Lawers. On reaching the col we had to make a choice of continuing along the ridge to also ascend Ben Lawers and Beinn Ghlas or to descend to Lochan nan Cat and walk back out to the Lawers Hotel. I decided our best option was to return to Lawers village instead of also taking in Ben Lawers and Beinn Ghlas as I didn't want to run the risk of not being able to hitch a lift back to the car.
The descent from the col down to Lochan nan Cat was fairly steep in places and the ground was frozen solid. I decided therefore that we would keep our crampons on and axes out until reaching safer ground at Lochan nan Cat.
Looking back at the descent from the col between Creag an Fhithich and An Stuc:
I really liked the view looking down to Lochan nan Cat.
Beautiful Lochan nan Cat:
On reaching Lochan nan Cat, we stopped to remove crampons and stow away our axes. We then continued on at a reasonable pace to reach the start of the landrover track at the hydro scheme.
Looking back at steep descent to Lochan nan Cat:
We followed the landrover track for a hundred metres or so before taking a path leading back towards the path we had used earlier in the day. On reaching our in-bound track, we followed it back out to the A827 reaching the car shortly after sunset.
It was great to once again see the cloud inversion over Loch Tay.
Heading back towards Loch Tay as sunset approaches:
A cracking day!
