Stob a'Choin

Munros

None

Corbetts

Stob a'Choin

Grahams

None

Bothies

None

Distance/ Ascent

12km     869m

Estimated Time

7h 15min

Notes

A fine looking hill - This has been on my tick list for a long time. I think that it is one I would like to do in early spring while there is still a bit of snow.

Parking

3 April 2015 (Good Friday)

The forecast was for rain but brightening up followed by two or more days of fine weather. I could not leave the hill for the following day as I needed to head home. However, I was taking my time with the aim of reaching the summit as the weather cleared. Therefore, I stopped to photograph these Goldeneye ducks.

On arriving at the car park, the rain stopped and the weather was looking noticeably brighter. I headed up the glen past the farm at Inverlochlarig towards the bridge across the river. I was very optimistic that the weather would clear.

The route follows the far bank or the burn and up into the lower coire before heading right above the crags to join the north ridge. On the upper slopes, there were lots of avalanche debris and I could hear occasional cracking sounds. At one point I had a glimpse of the sun. However, the summit was in thick clag.

The plan was to head south-east to pick up the fence posts to spot height 836 before following the fence north down Creag nan Saighead. I was using OS Explorer Map 365 (Stob a'Choin falls on the left hand edge) and OS 1:50 000 First Series Sheet 56 (Stob a'Choin falls on the right hand edge). I picked up some fence posts that headed south. I hoped hat they would swing round to join the posts I was aiming for. This fence was not shown on my Explorer map though it appears on MemoryMap. The posts did not swing round and I followed them for longer than I should have, probably losing in excess of 150 metres. In reality, I could have continued down to the lochan at NN 410 150 and headed north to the Larig Glen. However, I decided to head NE with further loss of elevation and a steep re-ascent up wet snow to join the the fence posts around NN 425 156, which I then followed according to the original plan. I was rewarded lower down with some views down the glen towards Loch Doine.

It is always nice too look back at the end of the day to look at the upward route. As you can see, the weather had not cleared. In fact the cloud base was slightly lower!

This is one to come back and explore on a nicer day.