Over The Hill

The weather all this week has been amazing with a High Pressure zone sitting right over the whole of the west and central belt, giving us clear blue skies and days just calling you to get out into the hills. And so it didn't take much persuasion for us to hit the road early Thursday morning and set off for our chosen objective, Stuc a'Chroin. The one decision we had yet to make, was do we head for Loch Earn, and tackle it from the north, or for Loch Lubnaig and approach from the south - Loch Lubnaig won the day, and so it was through Callander and a short while later we were pulling into the lay-by on the loch side below Ardchullaire Lodge and lacing up the boots.

There is no easy start to this walk, within metres of setting off you are onto a very steep and narrow path which winds its way up through the forest until it eventually meets up with a broad forest track and then into the open hillside, where the track continues along the Right of Way leading to Glen Ample and eventually to Edinample on Loch Earn.

A short distance along the track, by a finger-post directing you to Beinn Each you strike east off the track and start the very steep climb, over a heather clad path towards the high slopes of Beinn Each directly ahead. The path zigzags, to around the 550m contour and then swings north, and contours the hillside for a short distance before swinging northeast from where the climb steepens, with the path clinging to the edge of some steep slopes before dipping down into a number of small gullies, from which it once again climbs steeply to the next gully. It was over this section that we encountered our first slabs of frozen snow, lying mainly in the gullies and rocky areas of the hillside; a fore-taste of what was ahead of us on the higher slopes.

We made the summit of Beinn Each in good time, and the weather was exceptional, with clear blue skies, with views stretching in every directions, the distant hills looking magnificent with their snow-capped tops, a great day for being on top of a Corbett - but we couldn't relax just yet, we had a Munro in our sights, and the hard work was just about to begin.

If getting to the summit of Beinn Each was hard, getting down was considerably more difficult, as the north facing ridge, leading steeply down into Bealach nan Caber, was covered in frozen snow and it took us a few attempts before we found a safe descent route, which Ian lead us steadily down making good use of our ice axes for that extra bit of grip.

The long ridge from Beinn Each to Bealach Glas at the base of Stuc a'Chroin is a demanding walk, with a number of minor tops to negotiate, and some deep gullies where there is no option but to lose some hard gained height before having to reverse the process and climb steeply upwards once again. There was plenty of snow covered areas along the ridge, but thankfully these were less problematic that our initial descent from Beinn Each, and in fact, we often made quicker progress over these hard pack snow areas than when presented with the rock and boulder strewn options along the route.

From Bealach Glas, we could clearly see ahead of us the long and steep snow covered route we would have to take to gain the summit plateau, and so, making the best of the beautiful sunshine, we decided to take our first main break of the morning, and so settled down for a quick lunch with a beautiful Alpine like scene as a backdrop to our setting.

Lunch over, we started the ascent, and quite unexpectedly it was not as difficult as it at first looked. You still had to choose your steps carefully; the snow was nicely packed but had enough give in it to ensure a good grip, and we made surprisingly good speed up the steep slope. About 200m below the summit, a group of five suddenly appeared on the crest of the plateau, donned their crampons and started heading down towards us. We passed mid-way, exchanging a few comments on the beauty of the day and on the view, so extensive we could actually see all the way to Arran and its range of hills, before we then continued our respective ascents and descents. As I watched them on their descent I could easily appreciate them having their crampons on, the slope looked far more daunting as a downhill challenge than to our uphill climb.

Once on the plateau, it is an easy stroll around the broad top, passing the first cairn, which is in fact slightly larger than the summit cairn, and onto the summit proper. From here the views were superb even although the cloud had started to thicken somewhat it remained high enough not to obstruct the 360 panorama we had on offer.

Departing the summit, we made our way along the snow-covered ridge towards the 951m northern top, and then descended a short section of boulders towards the lower grassy 850m top. The contrast between these slopes and our approach route was quite striking, there was virtually no snow below the 900m level, and the grassy slopes made for a very easy, and leisurely descent into Coire Chroisg. From this point, our return consisted of a long stretch of open heather hillside as we skirted the forest boundary and descended to intercept the Glen Ample track a few hundred metres south of the forest boundary.

We then had the luxury of a fairly easy, but nevertheless, quite long walk back through the glen and down the forest path to Loch Lubnaig and a very welcome "refreshment" stop at The Lade shortly after picking up the car.

This was a wonderful day and a very challenging walk in superb winter conditions - great day, thanks Ian and Lawrie.