Ben More & Stob Binnein

With the promise of a beautiful sunny day I headed off to pick up John at his house and then onwards to climb Ben More & Stob Binnein at 1174m & 1165m respectively.

We decided to tackle these two from the much more scenic but longer and less well traveled route from Inverlochlarig by Loch Doine at the end of the minor road from Balquidder.

The initial slopes were steep and grassy but we were in no hurry and enjoyed the Spring sunshine. The route was quite busy and we passed a group of lads from Kellogs in Manchester who were on their way up Cruach Ardrain. When we pointed across the glen to teh mountain by the same name they realised they were on the wrong hill completely. A funny story in sunny spring weather but in different conditions.......?

Stob Binnien was summited and we dropped down to the Bealach-eadar-dha Beinn at a height of 862m passing a huge boulder which must have been the lunch stop for thousands of walkers over many many years. Onwards and steeply upwards to the snowy summit of Ben More we stopped several times to look at the stunning views of snowy mountains against clear blue skies in late April.

We spent a good while nosing around the summit of Ben More despite the bitter wind and then dropped back down the bealach and down again to Inverlochlarig Glen. We guessed that this glen and the adjoining Benmore Glen to our North must have been used as a major route in older times for driving livestock to markets in the lowlands. Teh glen is stunning with numerous huge boulders scattered throughout and we decided it would be a great camping / bouldering / climbing site for a weekend trip.

Back to the car in six and a half hours, a leisurely and very enjoyable day.