Ben Lui

Temperatures had risen in the past 24hours so that much of the snow covered frozen for the past week had melted. Streams were full and I followed a few cars with kayaks on the roof heading north. 

Parking in The Drovers' Inn car park at Inverarnan, I headed north up the A82 (grim) for a few hundred metres before leaving the road and following a well made vehicle track climbing steeply onto the hillside above the railway line. 

The pylon line from Cruachan dominated the skyline and I was startled to see two cradles with men inside hanging from two of the power lines. They wheeled along between the pylons, presumably carrying out some sort of line upgrade or maintenance.

At 300m altitude, I left the track and onto the open hillside to climb the complex ridge of Troisgeach, disappearing into the cloud base at about 400m. The dark figure of a stag appeared over a rock outcrop ahead and eyed me suspiciously. Entirely expecting it to bolt at any moment, I was surprised when it barked at me, then ran off, before returning to its high perch to check me again. I kept to my path and he soon was off. 

When I reached 700m, the ground started to level off and it was time for the map and a bearing to keep me on track. The terrain was very tricky to follow, and the numerous patches of snow & ice made things more complicated to comprehend in the gloom. 

A few minutes later there was a brightening in the sky and soon enough the cloud dispersed to show me a view. I plodded on to the summit of my objective, Meall an Fhudair (764m). Good views all around, from Loch Fyne across the Arrochar Alps, to Ben More above Crianlarich. 

The pic is of Ben Lui to the north, which had a stubborn cloud on the summit all day. 

I dropped down to the Lairig Arnan before climbing another 300m back up to the summit of Beinn Damhain, a wee Graham at 684m. Then back east and back to the glen to join my outward track.