by Dave Hewitt » Tue May 17, 2016 12:22 pm
The way you describe via the Craighorn fence is quite nice, I think (I'm a fan of Craighorn, which would be a lot busier were it 30m higher), but does involve a bit of extra descent/ascent as you say. The line skirting Alva Moss to the south and coutouring the northern edge of Craighorn is drier than the direct line across the moss, but is always going to be squelchy in places apart from in a longish dry spell (as recently) or a proper freeze.
I usually just go straight across - the haggy stretch doesn't last very long and if you zigzag about a bit you can avoid the main swamps. Then from the top of the track just angle southwards across the slope to the Ever/Cleuch col and up from there - it's reasonable ground across the tussocks. I tend to take the high line over Buck/Cleuch however, then descend via Ever. Blairdenon itself is nice via the southern horseshoe from Alva, up by Bengengie, down by Colsnaur - did that again last week and it was good as ever.