Two munros; almost as many trees

As appears to be the norm with me, I’ve got another excuse why I’ve not been up in the hills recently. This time struggling with intermittent breathlessness and the odd irregular heartbeat, but as the doctor wasn’t too concerned I decided to get out there, take it slow and see how it goes.

We invited our friend, Nick, to come along with us and opted for a Munro that neither of us had done. Ben Lawers, the highest mountain in the southern highlands at and the 10th highest in the UK. Knowing it was a very popular hike, we left home at 8am to avoid the tourist-rush, but the huge car park was already almost full when we arrived.

Ok, so climbing a huge mountain doesn’t sound like taking it easy, but the start point being at 400m makes it much less daunting than other local hills, like Ben More and Stuc A Chroin.

The early part of the walk was beautiful. A gentle climb through bilberries, heather, butterflies, willows, rowans and birch, with a stream running through it all. Then you pass through a gate onto open grazing land and almost all nature disappears. Just grass, moss and not much else (apart from a dotting of hillwalkers at various points up the hill).

The path steepens here, with most of the climb going up to Beinn Ghlas first. Nick and Kerry were flying, I was not. I’m not used to being the one lagging behind, but I was glad they were patient and waited for me when I needed a break. Whether it’s the health stuff or just a general lack of fitness recently, I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it’s both.

From the top of Beinn Ghlas the views were spectacular, down to Loch Tay and across to Ben Lawers. We were surprised how close it looked, and I can understand why a lot of people don’t realise Beinn Ghlas is a Munro in its own right. After a compulsory summit selfie, we set off down to the windy bealach and then straight up towards the top of Ben Lawers.

We were surprised to reach the top as quickly as we did. No false summits, which makes a change. My 20th Munro. Kerry and Rudi’s 19th, and Nick’s 4th.

After a couple of photos, we dropped down a few feet out of the wind and ate lunch. Nick found a wet patch of grass to sit on.

As more and more people began to appear on the ascent, we started making our way back down.

The descent follows a path below Beinn Ghlas and Meall Corranaich, which we’d climbed last year from the other side, with wide open views down into Glen Lyon (not a tree or bush in sight), before eventually dropping back down into the valley and some actual nature again.

Shattered. A pint at Mhor 84 on the way home was well deserved.

This time next week it’ll be a year since we moved to Scotland. I’d have liked to have got out more, but 13 peaks in a year isn’t too bad.