{"id":684,"date":"2018-04-01T17:46:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T17:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/?p=613"},"modified":"2018-09-09T18:53:20","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T18:53:20","slug":"mountaineering-scotland-munro-ben-lawers-20180401","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/?p=684","title":{"rendered":"Blue skies in Ben Lawers."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fantastic sunny day out in winter conditions with many people taking advantage of the beautiful weather (<em>Munros Completed : Beinn Ghlas (73), Ben Lawers (74)<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Forecast for today was the best of the three days, and the previous two had already been very good. The snow is in excellent condition, deep, firm and easy to walk on. Today I wanted to try out a couple of Munros in the Lawers Group, an area I had visited several times but never managed to actually climb there due to bad weather. Additionally, the road to this area isin&#8217;t maintained or cleared in Winter so is often impassable. Currently I knew the road to be open up to the Southern end of the reservoir and so it was exciting to wake to clear blue skies, no wind and a tiny bit of frost. I had a quick breakfast &amp; left at 09:00 and drove the 45 mins to the Lawers area.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">As I turned off the main road, there was a sign saying the road ahead was closed which I took to be further on to the Bridge of Balgie. Fortunately, this turned out to be the case as the road was clear and dry and when I drove the few km\u2019s to the Lawers National Car Park I found it was almost full!.<\/span><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n#foogallery-gallery-862 .fg-image { width: 640px; }<\/style>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"foogallery foogallery-container foogallery-image-viewer foogallery-link-image foogallery-lightbox-none fg-center fg-image-viewer fg-ready fg-dark fg-border-medium fg-round-small fg-shadow-outline fg-loading-default fg-loaded-fade-in fg-caption-always fg-hover-fade fg-hover-zoom\" id=\"foogallery-gallery-862\" data-foogallery=\"{&quot;item&quot;:{&quot;showCaptionTitle&quot;:true,&quot;showCaptionDescription&quot;:false},&quot;lazy&quot;:true,&quot;template&quot;:{&quot;loop&quot;:true}}\" style=\"--fg-title-line-clamp: 0; --fg-description-line-clamp: 0;\" >\n\t<div class=\"fiv-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"fiv-inner-container\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/View-to-BG-from-BL-4-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"853\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers\" title=\"View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/View-to-BG-from-BL-4-Custom\/873909884.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/View-from-BG-to-Ben-Lawers-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"854\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers\" title=\"View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/View-from-BG-to-Ben-Lawers-Custom\/1536682644.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">View from Beinn Ghlas to Ben Lawers<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BG-from-track-start-4-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"Beinn Ghlas from start of track\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"856\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Beinn Ghlas Munro\" title=\"Beinn Ghlas from start of track\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/BG-from-track-start-4-Custom\/1442586974.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">Beinn Ghlas from start of track<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Descent-from-BL-1-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"Descent from Ben Lawers\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"857\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mountain landscape view of Muno Beinn Ghlas\" title=\"Descent from Ben Lawers\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/Descent-from-BL-1-Custom\/3217398488.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">Descent from Ben Lawers<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Me-on-BL-summit-8-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"Me on Ben Lawers summit\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"858\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Climber on Munro Ben Lawers summit\" title=\"Me on Ben Lawers summit\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/Me-on-BL-summit-8-Custom\/54315868.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">Me on Ben Lawers summit<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Me-on-BL-summit-3-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"Me on Ben Lawers summit\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"859\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Climber on Munro Ben Lawers summit\" title=\"Me on Ben Lawers summit\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/Me-on-BL-summit-3-Custom\/1248431056.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">Me on Ben Lawers summit<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/An-Stuc-from-BL-3-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"An Stuc from Ben Lawers\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"860\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Munro An Stuc from Ben Lawers\" title=\"An Stuc from Ben Lawers\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/An-Stuc-from-BL-3-Custom\/1594364981.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">An Stuc from Ben Lawers<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fg-item fg-type-image fg-idle\"><figure class=\"fg-item-inner\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMAG0864-Custom.jpg\" data-caption-title=\"View of Ben Lawers from Beinn Ghlas\" data-caption-desc=\"2018-04-01 Blue skies in Ben Lawers\" data-attachment-id=\"861\" data-type=\"image\" class=\"fg-thumb\"><span class=\"fg-image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"View of Munro Ben Lawers from Beinn Ghlas\" title=\"View of Ben Lawers from Beinn Ghlas\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"skip-lazy fg-image\" data-src-fg=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cache\/2018\/08\/IMAG0864-Custom\/1430802511.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%22640%22%20height%3D%22480%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20640%20480%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" loading=\"eager\"><\/span><span class=\"fg-image-overlay\"><\/span><\/a><figcaption class=\"fg-caption\"><div class=\"fg-caption-inner\"><div class=\"fg-caption-title\">View of Ben Lawers from Beinn Ghlas<\/div><\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fg-loader\"><\/div><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"fiv-ctrls\">\n\t\t\t<button type=\"button\" class=\"fiv-prev\" title=\"Prev\"><span>Prev<\/span><\/button>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"fiv-count\"><span class=\"fiv-count-current\">1<\/span>of<span class=\"fiv-count-total\">8<\/span><\/label>\n\t\t\t<button type=\"button\" class=\"fiv-next\" title=\"Next\"><span>Next<\/span><\/button>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Such was the clarity of the skies and the fact this is a busy route I actually didn\u2019t need a map and compass or GPS and could just follow the trail. The trail starts directly from the car park &amp; takes you to the fence area which was the start of the snowline. Here, I stopped to put my crampons on as there is a moderate rise in slope which was covered in snow though I kept only my poles out to use. It was unusual to see so many people around having seen so few in the past couple of days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You can actually see Beinn Ghlas summit from this point and it\u2019s a fairly moderate approach. Strangely, higher up the path was devoid of snow in patches so I had to move carefully on the crampons before further up it was full snow cover again. I was soon at the summit at 12:15 only 2 hours later.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">From here it\u2019s an easy broad ridge descent to a col and then a moderate ascent which I found quite easy up to Ben Lawers. I only had one base layer on the whole day, and at times had to rub snow into the back of my neck and head in order to stay cool! I reached Ben Lawers summit at 1:15 and took the opportunity with the good weather to enjoy a summit for a while, staying for at least 15 mins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is possible to do AnStuc but I wanted a shorter route today after two long days previously. It would have added a good 2 hours to the route so I just retraced steps to return as I was feeling tired for the 6th Munro in 3 days.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">I did manage again some great glissading on my return, going at least a couple of hundred metres on one. There&#8217;s no finer place that Scotlands mountains for me on days like this and because they can be quite rare when you have no wind at all and clear blue skies it makes it even more special.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Completed-Route-Image-Beinn-Ghlas-Ben-Lawers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1081 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Completed-Route-Image-Beinn-Ghlas-Ben-Lawers-1024x618.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Completed-Route-Image-Beinn-Ghlas-Ben-Lawers-1024x618.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Completed-Route-Image-Beinn-Ghlas-Ben-Lawers-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Completed-Route-Image-Beinn-Ghlas-Ben-Lawers-768x463.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Completed-Route-Image-Beinn-Ghlas-Ben-Lawers.jpg 1116w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Fantastic sunny day out in winter conditions with many people taking advantage of the beautiful weather (Munros Completed : Beinn Ghlas (73), Ben Lawers (74)).<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[40,29],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mountaineering","category-scotland","tag-lawers-group","tag-munro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/1276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prwilliams-photography.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}