BEN LAWERS (3984'), BEINN GHLAS (3650') & MEALL GARBH (3662')

Log book entry from Glip's personal log

Saturday 28th April        Beinn Ghlas (3650'), Ben Lawers (3984'), Meall Garbh (3662')

Leaders Glip, Robbie Mochrie and Mr. Sinclair

APLs Kenny Blair, James Gatherer

Scouts Mark Sinclair, Adiran Simpson, Colin Beaton, Richard Terry, Douglas McCrorie, Alistair Blair

Weather

Cloudy in glens, but sunny in the mountains all day Cool and dry with light/moderate winds

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Report

We left Scout Headquarters quite early in the McIntyre’s minibus with Mark and Mr Sinclair following us in the Volvo. It was mostly foggy all the way up, but as we drove up to the Lawers Information Centre, we broke through the clouds into glorious sunshine and Alpine-style white-capped mountains – an unforgettable experience.

The ascent was nice and easy with Frodo navigating, although Colin again was having trouble with his boots. After Bhein Ghlas, we walked to the ridge of Ben Lawers itself and had lunch before finally reaching the summit.

Mr. Sinclair volunteered to take the main party back down well I took Robbie, Frodo and Fordlet further along the ridge. Peasant and Richard declined to go with us and opted for the return journey.

The route to Meall Garbh (3662’)  proved most interesting and enjoyable with surprisingly vicious cliffs at the first top (GR 636422) and a steep tricky descent after the second top (GR 639431). Ally came to grief between these two tops by going out of control on a snow slope and ending up on the rocks with subsequent grazing and bleeding. First aid was applied but the bandages kept slipping when he walked until they were dispensed with altogether when it was discovered the bleeding had stopped.

At Meall Garbh, we met a middle-aged couple – the only people encountered after Ben Lawers. There were some good snow slopes to slide on down to Lawers burn, but Frodo almost came unstuck when he went too close the stream…..

We picked up a track starting from a small dam but, since this was obviously leading round the mountain, we left it again and followed the stream down its West Bank, struggling through trees for a bit. We reached the main road just as Mr Sinclair appeared – not so coincidental as one might think since he had been following us down with binoculars,

It was then I discovered that I had left the minibus lights on with a flat battery the result. Fortunately, it bump started when we got back.

After a stop in Killin for the ice cream van, we returned to the Lawers area to camp at the usual spot (GR 571452).

Tea was a very slow business because Robbie (caterer) had bought real mince, potatoes and carrots, so a couple of hours were spent over the whole business.

During clear up, Peasant, Ally and Colin(?) decided to throw Frodo’s lilo in the stream – Patrick not appreciated by Frodo who lost his temper, pushed Peasant in the river and then chased Ally tripping him up.  Ally took …. exception to this and started wading into Frodo – Great argy-bargy and flying of boots. I tried to make peace, but it wasn’t immediate. Fortunately, it had all blown over by half an hour later (I think).

Darkness had followed by the time everything was washed and tidy. There was great interest shown in the number of feet which had been climbed and the topic became so wearing that nobody was allowed to mention feet again, which is why mountain heights became so many thousand ‘funny wee things’ to quote Adrian.

We had a campfire using tons of dry straw and three bits of wood. Mr Sinclair did sterling work feeding straw while we sang.  It proved to be a superb campfire with ‘Small town in Germany’ making a big comeback. All the favourites were sung– Darky Sunday School, Tramp,  Three Craws, Sammy etc etc.

Mr Sinclair decided to sleep in his car so that his snoring would not keep Robbie and I awake. Very considerate.