Over The Hill

Depending on which Munro guide you are reading, Ben Lui is described as the "Queen of Scottish Mountains", or "one of the finest mountains in the Southern Highlands". Having now added this Munro to my list, I wish I could add my own description, but fact is, the weather was so poor that we only ever had a few hundred metres visibility at the best, and the promised views of Central Gully, magnificent ridge lines, and great panoramas just never materialised. Still, it was a great climb, and that surely must be the making of a great mountain?

The "longish" 7 kilometre walk-in from Dalrigh via Cononish to the track end at the river crossing on the Allt an Rund just seemed to be over in no time at all. I guess it was the company, the conversation or maybe even the anticipation of the mountain ahead, which had remained stubbornly covered in low cloud for the entire walk-in. The crossing point on the Allt an Rund remains hidden until you are right alongside the river, so there was a little concern as we approached as to whether we would be able to make it over to the other side with dry boots, but as it transpired, we were able to find our way over a couple of large boulders with only the minimum of boots in water before reaching the opposite bank.

There is a narrow, but very obvious, path leading south west from the Allt an Rund which climbs steeply alongside the Allt Coire Ghaothaich as it tumbles down the hillside from it's source high up in Coire Gaothach which we took to in true single file as we played "follow the leader" for the next 400m of ascent into the heart of Coire Gaothach. The cloud base was lying around the 600m height, and although we had encountered a few light showers of rain in the walk-in, by the time we were above the cloud base and entering the coire base the precipitation was extremely heavy and we were all looking a bit "drookit".

In the heart of Coire Gaothach, around the 750m height, we left the narrow path as it continued to the foot of the steep Central Gully, and traversed north west, then north north west, over the rock and boulder strewn slopes aiming for a point on the north east ridge at about 950m height that would bring us onto the ridge above, and clear of the crags that dominate the lower slopes of Stob Garbh. The traverse was fairly straight forward, however, a little care was required as the rocky surface was quite slippery, no doubt due to the rather wet conditions we were encountering. Suddenly, as we were approaching the ridge, we intersected with a narrow, but good, path which led us nicely over the last section of the hillside and onto the ridge almost smack on the 950m level - the question is, where does that path start, it must be somewhere further down in the coire, but with the poor visibility we had it was impossible to see just where - maybe next time!

With just under 200m of climb still ahead of us, we took a short break on the ridge before tackling the steep and narrow path to the summit, which has a few "airy" sections to negotiate before you suddenly step up and onto the flat north west corner of the summit and are confronted by a small cairn masquerading as the summit. Not to be fooled we carried on as the true summit and cairn lie a few minutes further along the ridge, directly above the steep sides of Central Gully, not that we saw much of the gully, the cloud doing its best to hide anything that wasn't within a few metres distance of the summit cairn.

MWIS had forecast summit temperatures of 3 degrees, but it felt considerably colder than that, so much so that a few gloves and warm hats were extracted from some rucksacks to fend off the cold and wet as we perched on a rather steep grassy slope for a very welcome lunch break.

We departed the summit and headed down the south east ridge, over the minor top at 987m, and on down towards the bealach above Coire Laoigh. We had and option to carry on to Ben Oss, but decided, that given the very poor visibility, we would leave that for another day; and so, at about 800m height, we dropped off the ridge and made a steep descent of some 300m down the grassy slopes to the waters of the Allt Coire Laoigh flowing through the long, and steep sided, Coire Laoigh.

We found that there was a grassy path running alongside the west bank of the Allt Coire Laoigh which we followed for the entire length of Coire Laoigh until we reached the Allt an Rund, and so the walk down the long coire was easier than anticipated, and we were soon crossing the Allt an Rund, and heading along the banks of the river, passing a rather picturesque waterfall on the way, towards Cononish and the track back to Dalrigh.

It is always worthwhile remembering to look behind you as you walk in the hills, and as we did so as we returned along the Cononish track, we were rewarded by the sight of the clouds dispersing over Ben Lui, and did finally get a view, albeit, a long distance view, of Ben Lui and its great north east coire, well worth the wait.

Another challenging and memorable day in the hills, thanks everyone, and thanks to Ian for a great walk.