The river leads to the Cononish Farm, where the path heads slightly up through neighbouring hills to the base of the mountain.
Finally we cross the stream which turns into the river we walked along , down in the valley . After a break we are ready to start the climb .
In the morning light the snow-caped ridge west of Ben Lui looks gloriously , promising good walk up there .
The real walk starts on the tiny path along the burn , which leads us directly to a corrie beneath the top . At places the burn forms small falls , what makes our trek pleasant.
There is no clear path at the bottom of Corrie Gaothaich , so we cross large patches of snow in order to reach the rocky ridge on the left . The last 200 m was a bit difficult , as our feet sank down into the soft and thick layer of snow . From that point there is a great view to the valley , where we were walking through two ours earlier . Amazing view .
The further we go the more snow to deal . But despite that , it seems that after crossing these fields of snow we will be able to get the summit quickly , following the rocky ridge . Some scrambling possibly .
Short break .Deep snow in the end of April was a little surprise .
When I got onto the ridge , hoping to continue up the hill quickly , I noticed two walkers camping below . We had met before , they were getting on the ridge from the lower point . They waved to me . After a couple of minutes they got up to their feet and this time they waved to say 'good bye'. They turned back - obviously they considered further climbing too difficult . Never mind , I thought , and moved up.
It wasn't good move , though . At first I found the slope quite easy to tackle , but at the height where ridge was getting narrower I had to slow down . There was much snow between and on the boulders , shattered densely . The icy snow made me very cautious , so I decided to cross slowly the ridge to the right , so as to approach the edge of smooth snow in the corrie . And find Marcin making his way there . After getting the edge , I found out that in the corrie steepish slope and hard-frozen snow makes this way dangerous too. So in these circumstances my decision was to come back down . Unfortunately , traversing the small gully I fell off ; despite having crampons on , my boots slid down . So did I .
I slid down some 300 metres , completely losing the control , bumping up several times . I couldn't believe when I stopped at last , with my feet on the boulder sticking out of snow. To my amazement I could get up , clearly being still in one piece ; nothing broken or twisted , except for some scratches . I was really lucky . Marcin , who wasn't sure what happened , came down . I told him I was going back to the car - he decided to change the route and followed to the right rim of the Corrie Gaothaich , in attempt to reach the top alone .
When I was slowly descending on the snow-covered slope , I saw somebody heading to me . He turned out to be Kevin , a gentleman from Glasgow who wanted to check if I was alright . He went down along with me to help pick up my things ( my rucksack and camera slid much further down ). Drinking tea he told me some stories about this mountain I had failed to climb. Kevin even offered me to take his walking sticks (I lost my own when fell off in the gully) despite he was going to get back on the route to the top. I must say I really appreciate his attitude and help .
Walking back without getting the top of Ben Lui I didn't feel disappointed ; it was a lucky day actually as I got away not killing or hurting myself . That's precious experience . I can always come back one day .
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