saltycaterer wrote:It was me that mentioned preferring climbing BEM by the corrie...I've nothing against ridge walks...but just don't really find them as exhilarating at others, just a personal preference, the corries, and gullies, etc always felt more secure and less exposed, but maybe that's just a personal preference, a better example would have been on BEM, my mate and I climbed up Coire na Tulaich and then also back down that way. There is a route called Curved edge that we looked at doing but to be honest it seemed way to exposed and from my point of view just not enjoyable, going up the corrie was enjoyable if a little slow with the loose scree.
the reason that I compared it to tower ridge on ben Nevis was that tower ridge (while considered a classic) does just not appeal to me...if Five finger gully was straight forward and useable...I would much prefer the feeling of moving up it, again just a personal thing that puts me in a MASSIVE minority of hill walkers.
The problem with comparing the Coire na Tulaich route up BEM with either Curved Ridge or Tower Ridge is that while the former is a standard walker's route, the latter are high grade scrambles / low grade rock climbs. Irrespective of the difference between gullies/corries and ridges, there is just no comparison in terms of difficulty. So it's not clear what your reasons are for your preference. It seems you were hoping Five Finger Gully would be similar to the Coire na Tulaich route up BEM. Now that you can see it isn't, you've sensibly ruled it out. But if a standard walker's route happened to follow a ridge-line rather than the floor of a corrie, would you necessarily rule that out? Or is your aversion to ridges so strong that you prefer to avoid them even when they present no difficulties? And is this aversion just a question of aesthetic preference, or of feeling unsettled by exposure? It would be easier to understand where you're coming from if you were to compare like with like.
