| | |||||
|
Ben Starav Beinn nan Aighenan Glas Bheinn Mhor Map A fine day - warm with blue skies and the traditional fluffy white clouds drifting by, nicely clear of the tops. I left the car at 10.25 and followed the unclassified road to Coileitir Farm (unoccupied) from where a path led on to the base of the long northern spur of Ben Starav. I climbed the spur over grass and stone via a quite steep but easily distinguished path - bit of a slog but no problems - reaching the top at 1.15.
I had a few wheat biscuits and cherry tomatos with a chunk of Edam cheese, all swilled down with lemonade, then descended eastwards down an up-and-down ridge which was quite narrow in places (the narrow bits could be avoided by a path on the S side). I reached the bealach and branched off south towards the next peak, Beinn nan Aighenan, pausing thereabouts to have a brief chat with a chap who was just returning from BnA - he was about 2 hours ahead of me doing the same route. He sounded as if he came from the NE of England and was another munro-bagger, of course - these three would bring him to 167. (Why is it that all the munro-baggers I meet are invariably ahead of me?) Anyway he said it would take me about an hour to get to the top of BnA from there so of course I then had to leg it to make sure I did it in that time - managed it in 50 minutes.
It was a straightforward descent over grass and stone and an obvious path up to the summit, steep in places. I returned to the bealach where I'd met the munro-bagger, taking another 50 minutes - was getting a bit tired now because the ascent had been from sea-level and it was a hot day. Just the final haul up Glas Bheinn Mhor now though, following a path along the ridge; some ups and downs but got to the top at 5.10.
After a brief rest and a swig of lemonade I ventured NNE from the top, looking for the way down. There was a path continuing over the summit to the east and I could see it subsequently swinging north and descending to the valley of the Allt Mheuran but I thought that seemed a long way round and hoped to find a more direct route. I descended maybe 50 feet and the way forward looked possible but the lack of a path was a bit worrying. I decided to slog back up and follow the path to the east. It took me quickly down to the valley and from there I was glad I hadn't tried to descend the N ridge - it looked pretty steep and rocky in places from that direction.
There was a long trudge back from there along an obvious path mostly down a very gentle incline. Back at the car 7.15 to be greeted by hordes of ravenous midges all very happy to see me. I drove back to the A82 and down to Tyndrum but unfortunately there were no vacancies anywhere. Tried Crianlarich - that was full too, even the hotels. I didn't want to go any further south as I wanted to have a bash at another hill the next day so I returned to Tyndrum and got a room at the Royal Hotel for £40. A bit expensive for me but I didn't want to try the tent with the midges again. Got a meal of pasta and tomato sauce with ½ bottle of wine at the Little Chef there. The Royal Hotel is quite a big place and caters mostly to coach parties of pensioners. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the sheer numbers of them made the dining experience rather different from the personal, easy-going breakfasts of the B&Bs I was used to. This was a military style canteen operation and pretty ghastly. Promptly at 8.30 a couple of hundred pensioners were all wheeled in together to begin guzzling and they were all horribly, whoopingly cheerful, blast them. I couldn't stand it - just had the cereal and toast and skipped the rest. | |||||
 | |||||
