[Closed] Cairngorm route experts and Ben Lawers experts - advice please

Oh and has anyone headed from the Bealach behind Beinn Ghlass onto the two munros between Beinn Ghlass and the Lawers Dam? It looks like an out and back with a distinct hill track between the two.

Wow good luck with that, should be fantastic, walked the path to Devils point last summer with the boy, a new path to the head of the corrie, should be nice and technical at the top, i think the boulder field down from Carn Toul may be an issue, report back if you do this as i was interested to find out whether it was worthwhile last year.

On a different note, has anyone headed round the north side of An Stuc beside Ben Lawers to avoid the scramble up the north east side? Is there much of a track to push round on? I was up Lawers and Ghlass last year and had a terrific ride to the extent that I'm thinking a traverse could be fun while recognising that An Stuc has the potential to be a bit of horror show and one I would like to avoid if possible.

I haven't, will ask at work if anyone has. Only been up Stuc the usual way from Lawers or Garbh(Cat Gulley the steep bit), and it has always been in iffy weather....I can't remember seeing a path, just steep hilside.

Oh and has anyone headed from the Bealach behind Beinn Ghlass onto the two munros between Beinn Ghlass and the Lawers Dam? It looks like an out and back with a distinct hill track between the two.

It is a disntinct path, good walk, not convinced it would be a good ride. Certainly the path dissapears as you descend back towards the Lawers car park - rough hill. You could Good sledging with the kids in winter as well 😉

There is talk of a faint path off An Stuc to the north accroding to a guidebook I have by Ralph Storer but I want to know if anyone has done it. The contour lines aren't too bad and I'd rather drop down and climb back up than tackle a necky scramble with a bike on my back.

For Meall Corranaich, I'm thinking of doing it as an out and back to the bealach as the descent off the bealach back to the now non existent visitor centre (even the car park is no more having been relocated down the hill) is a smashing path that it would be rude not to ride again!

As for the Cairn Toul boulder field, how does it compare to the likes of Schehallion? Rode it on saturday. Carried the bike to and from the summit for a few hundred metres of rock hopping though nothing too terrible and not enough to have made me decide not to do the summit. 😀

Corranaich - that descent is fun 🙂
Stuc: google reveals:
http://www.mountainhiking.org.uk/scotland-mountains/killin/killin2.shtml
[img] [/img]

That was what I was thinking as the way round in order to do the traverse with the bikes. Looks like we may have a winner!

Cheers for that Matt. Are you close by to Lawers then? Nice mountains to have on your doorstep! I assume you've also ridden the Inverar Horseshoe then if that is up your neck of the woods?

Fergal

Is there a good path down to Corrour Bothy or is it just a steep xc bash?

It's a very good newly tweeked path, it was only last year and i forget, it's quite steep and rocky at the head of the corrie. I was all psyched to ride Einnich up the back of Braeriach, then over Cairn Toul and descend down to the corour bothy path, which i do think will be good, then back by the ghru. Then a few said the descent off Cairn Toul would be rubbish with a big boulder field, although i am not convinced, i never got round to it last summer, you really should just give it a whirl, will be epic.

I've done most of this with a bike... the opposite way! Climbed the path from Corrour to Toul & on across to Braeriach with a bike. To be totally honest, I wouldn't bother again. The Braeriach descent northwards was ok but as so much of it is open peat, we walked some sections rather than rode (and ripped them up).
Wells of Dee to Sgorr an Lochain Uain rides fine.
Top of toul is brutal.
Corrour descent is interesting, steep and very exposed at the top, still got some snow on it this past weekend. Lower down is just a blast.
For the same amount of effort involved in your proposed route, there are some better rides around...

Braeriach seems to have seen a lot of path building down the bottom section so I avoided almost all of the peat last Easter. Only a couple of rocky sections had me off and walking for a few yards as I couldn't find a rideable line through.

Top of toul I'm expecting to be a walk up and down but hey ho! 😆

Corrour sounds intriguing now that the path has been improved and I've since seen pics of it from Corrour. It looks very promising indeed.

I'll happily accept that there will be better rides around but part of me likes riding the bike into locations that walking would be a pain to complete in a day. I part rode off Braeriach in the direction of Corrour last year but time was against me so I ended up doubling back on myself to get back to Rothiemurchus.

Fergal

Einich to Braeriach is mostly a push and carry. Nice day out in the hills though but the snow tends to lie at the head of Einich as I found out as I had a bit of a moment getting by it with my bike. There's nothing like wedging yourself betweena steep face and a big wall of snow post holing the bars of your bike into the snow to stop it sliding down onto the boulders below! 😉 Also, there's no obvious path from the top of Einich onto Braeriach. You basically make your way accross as best you can.

Sanny - work basically overlooks Lawers, Tarmachan from home....

Matt

That sounds damn good to me. Do you know of any trails on the hills to the south of Loch Tay? Not somewhere I've explored yet.

Cheers