Stob a'Choire Odhair

16 October 2009. The weather recently has been so awful in this part of the country- or when it has been reasonable I have had something else that needed doing and have been unable to go hillwalking- so to cheer me up I have decided to blog a walk that I did in perfect conditions last October. Stob a'Choire Odhair, 945m/3,107' is very prominent from the main road across Rannoch Moor and provides a fine walk either with or without its near neighbour, Stob Ghabhar....

There is a good car park just short of Victoria Bridge; the estate seems to be very walker friendly. The autumn colours were stunning; this is the view that I got looking towards the Etive hills.....

The first part of the walk was along the track following the Abhainn Shira as far as the mountaineering club hut named as Clashgour. I stayed in this hut many moons ago and it can accommodate many more people than seems possible from the outside.....

I then followed an old path up the glen of the Allt Toaig; this path is getting a bit wet and muddy in places but it is better than struggling over the moorland......

Higher up, the path divided and I took the right hand branch which ascended the south slopes of my Munro in a series of zig zags.....

There was a good view from this path west towards Ben Cruachan.....

Reaching the top of the zig zags, I thought that I was almost at the summit but in fact it was another 25 minutes away up gentle but increasingly bouldery slopes. The cairn was perched on the edge of the east face looking directly down and across Rannoch Moor.....

But it was the surrounding mountains that really caught the eye. This is the cairn looking towards Bidean nam Bian.....

I sat on top for a while drinking in the view. I had heard stags roaring in the distance when I was coming up and spotted a big herd on the slopes of neighbouring Beinn Toaig. Eventually I dragged myself away and started the descent of the west slopes where there was traces of a path. This is a view to Stob Ghabhar from the descent.....

and this is another view of Bidean.....

One good thing about having done the Munros is that there is no pressure to do multiple ascents on a walk if the inclination is otherwise. The ascent to Stob Ghabhar from the col is extremely steep and loose and I couldn't really be bothered tackling it again today so after sitting around at the col for a while I simply descended a bit and picked up the other branch of the ascent path and returned to the car. This is looking to the Crianlarich hills from the col.....

The view to Beinn Achaladair, Beinn an Dothaidh and Beinn Dorain from the walk back along the track was superb.....

An excellent 5 and a half hours on one of my favourite Munros (9 miles and 760m of ascent). Lets hope that the 2010 autumn weather turns to this soon!