Over The Hill

Earlier in the year, Ian, Lawrie and Jim had attempted to recce this walk route but had to abandon the walk when on the Na Stairdhrichean Ridge due to the winds and ice covered surface. Today, as we arrived at Inverlochlarig it was an entirely different hill we were about to climb. Gone was the snow except for a residual covering in some of the higher ridges, and the skies were clear and blue.

There is no gentle easing into this walk, cross the road from the car park, 5 steps up the stile over the wall, and from there on it's a grueling uphill climb until you reach Stob Invercarnaig at a height of 700m. We were a large group, and soon became quite spread out as we progressed, each at their own pace, up the grassy hillside eventually stopping to regroup as we crossed a second style around the 650m height. Then another short sharp climb to Stob Invercarnaig where, thankfully, the ridge begins to level, and the going is much gentler on a broad grass ridge that eventually narrows as you approach Na Stairdhrichean Ridge.

It was at this point that we started to encounter small pockets of snow on the ridge path, with larger amounts lying on the steeper east slopes of the ridge, all of which added to the spectacular views we had of the surrounding hills and lochs, and which gave an indication as to how much snow may have been here just a few weeks previously. A brief stop at the cairn on Stob Coire an Lochain (1068m) and then we were off down the broad slope to the bealach at 1045m before the final climb to the summit of Stob Binnein, which had an unpleasant surprise in that the final 100m climb was much steeper than I had thought it would be, catching me by surprise and I felt quite relieved to finally top the summit cairn.

It was a fairly crowded summit cairn that we landed on for lunch, with walkers approaching from both Ben More, and following in our footsteps from Stob Coire an Lochain, with everyone agreeing, what brilliant weather and what great views this summit offered. After our break, and with me feeling fully revived again, we retraced our steps to Stob Coire an Lochain where we had a quick discussion about taking in the option of making our return via Meall na Dige. The outcome of which was that we split our large party, five of us opting for the Meall na Dige option, whilst the remainder would retrace their outbound route back to the car park.

Temporary farewells said, the five of us headed east off the summit of Stob Coire an Lochain aiming for the small lochan in the bealach between Stob Coire an Lochain and Meall Dige before zigzagging our way through some minor crags to the wide summit of Meall Dige(966m), from where the views back to the crags of Stob Binnein and Stob Coire an Lochain were spectacular.

Our route from Meall Dige took us south-south-east over a broad, grassy ridge in a gentle descent towards Am Man and then continuing to Meall Monachyle(648m) at the end of the ridge. From here, it was a very steep descent south-west down from the end of the ridge and into Glen Carnaig and onto the tarmac track for the final 2k back to the car park, which was done at route-march pace as Alan was counting the seconds down, determined to complete the walk in under 7 hours, which we did with a few minutes to spare.

Back at the car park, we joined up with the group who had descended directly from Stob Coire an Lochain, not without incident, as Jim McG had taken a tumble on the steep descent, and was just about to be driven off by David to hospital with what turned out to be a fractured shoulder. All credit to the group who managed to get Jim safely down from the hillside without further incident.

Another spectacular walk, on a wonderful mountain - Thanks Ian