walkhighlands

Share your personal walking route experiences in Scotland, and comment on other peoples' reports.
Warning Please note that hillwalking when there is snow lying requires an ice-axe, crampons and the knowledge, experience and skill to use them correctly. Summer routes may not be viable or appropriate in winter. See winter information on our skills and safety pages for more information.

Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor


Postby Xavi Coll » Wed Oct 27, 2021 8:47 pm

Route description: Buachaille Etive Mòr

Munros included on this walk: Stob Dearg (Buachaille Etive Mòr), Stob na Bròige (Buachaille Etive Mòr)

Date walked: 28/05/2021

Time taken: 7 hours

Distance: 15 km

Ascent: 1110m

2 people think this report is great.
Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).

We climbed the classic Agag's Groove at Buachaille Etive Mor in a beautiful spring day in a party of 3 with myself , Marek and John
Attachments
20210528_185843.jpg
At the end climbing was the excuse for this...
20210528_170033.jpg
20210528_154652.jpg
20210528_134634.jpg
20210528_153516.jpg
First Pitch of Agag's Groove
20210528_155614.jpg
20210528_170033.jpg
20210528_155348.jpg
On the last pitch of Agag's Groove
Xavi Coll
Rock-climber
 
Posts: 16
Munros:64   
Joined: Oct 24, 2021

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby gaffr » Thu Oct 28, 2021 2:20 pm

More than just a walk :lol: One of several good climbs on the Rannoch Wall. All gave good and interesting days out.
User avatar
gaffr
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2258
Munros:281   Corbetts:203
Fionas:33   Donalds:14
Sub 2000:11   Hewitts:25
Wainwrights:11   Islands:17
Joined: Oct 25, 2009
Location: Highland.

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby Xavi Coll » Thu Oct 28, 2021 2:52 pm

gaffr wrote:More than just a walk :lol: One of several good climbs on the Rannoch Wall. All gave good and interesting days out.


Yes totally! haha, loads of good climbs and the surroundings are stunning, so I'll head up there any other time that the weather allows to :wink:
Xavi Coll
Rock-climber
 
Posts: 16
Munros:64   
Joined: Oct 24, 2021

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby Coop » Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:14 pm

Don't know if anyone watches this but I like tuning into Alba to watch the episides

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zyvn

Agag's groove was on the other week
Coop
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 1313
Munros:78   Corbetts:123
Fionas:68   Donalds:52+16
Sub 2000:14   Hewitts:41
Wainwrights:65   Islands:14
Joined: Jun 5, 2016
Walk wish-list

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby dav2930 » Fri Oct 29, 2021 6:53 pm

Nice one. Quite an improbable line for a VDiff, isn't it? One of my favourites anywhere. :)
User avatar
dav2930
Ambler
 
Posts: 1615
Munros:244   Corbetts:14
Fionas:18   Donalds:56
Sub 2000:1   Hewitts:164
Wainwrights:214   Islands:2
Joined: Feb 13, 2015
Location: Cumbria

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby past my sell by date » Sun Oct 31, 2021 12:01 pm

dav2930 wrote:Nice one. Quite an improbable line for a VDiff, isn't it? One of my favourites anywhere. :)

It's a Scottish V. Diff Dave - not like Ashtree slabs :lol: :lol:
The Chasm was V. Diff at one time :shock: - apart from the converging walls - which before the chockstone (conveniently) fell in must have been one of the scariest most exposed pitches anywhere It was graded Severe :shock:
past my sell by date
Mountaineer
 
Posts: 1067
Munros:282   Corbetts:86
Fionas:27   Donalds:6
Sub 2000:8   Hewitts:146
Wainwrights:159   
Joined: Apr 24, 2013

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby dav2930 » Sun Oct 31, 2021 4:08 pm

past my sell by date wrote:
dav2930 wrote:Nice one. Quite an improbable line for a VDiff, isn't it? One of my favourites anywhere. :)

It's a Scottish V. Diff Dave - not like Ashtree slabs :lol: :lol:
The Chasm was V. Diff at one time :shock: - apart from the converging walls - which before the chockstone (conveniently) fell in must have been one of the scariest most exposed pitches anywhere It was graded Severe :shock:

True, Tony, but then the last time I did Ash Tree Slabs I thought it was harder than Agag's Groove!
The Chasm sounds like one of those real anomalies - makes you wonder how it could ever have been graded VDiff or even Severe. Conversely we have Bowfell Buttress which is really a VDiff (Mild Severe max.) that now gets Hard Severe from both FRCC and Rockfax. Ridiculous! :crazy:
User avatar
dav2930
Ambler
 
Posts: 1615
Munros:244   Corbetts:14
Fionas:18   Donalds:56
Sub 2000:1   Hewitts:164
Wainwrights:214   Islands:2
Joined: Feb 13, 2015
Location: Cumbria

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby past my sell by date » Sun Oct 31, 2021 5:25 pm

Yes - originally a classic Diff, but - particularly in the Lakes - easy climbs become very polished (novices in boots) :( . I always reckoned MVS was the way to go WYSiWYG
past my sell by date
Mountaineer
 
Posts: 1067
Munros:282   Corbetts:86
Fionas:27   Donalds:6
Sub 2000:8   Hewitts:146
Wainwrights:159   
Joined: Apr 24, 2013

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby gaffr » Sun Oct 31, 2021 5:48 pm

Yes, Bowfell a classic diff in boots was what it was 57 years ago when we went to the buttress...there was another route that we did there...Nice place Bowfell.
Of course as has been said earlier these routes polish up over the decades. :D
User avatar
gaffr
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2258
Munros:281   Corbetts:203
Fionas:33   Donalds:14
Sub 2000:11   Hewitts:25
Wainwrights:11   Islands:17
Joined: Oct 25, 2009
Location: Highland.

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby dav2930 » Sun Oct 31, 2021 9:39 pm

Well yes, there's the polish to consider. The worst I know of for that is Troutdale Pinnacle - like glass in places. BB is getting polished (and badly scarred by ice climbing gear), but still retains reasonable friction. It's certainly more than Diff, and maybe always was, but absolutely does not warrant HS! :?
User avatar
dav2930
Ambler
 
Posts: 1615
Munros:244   Corbetts:14
Fionas:18   Donalds:56
Sub 2000:1   Hewitts:164
Wainwrights:214   Islands:2
Joined: Feb 13, 2015
Location: Cumbria

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby past my sell by date » Sun Oct 31, 2021 9:48 pm

Yes the top pitch of Troutdale pinnacle (shared by several routes) is just like glass but very well protected, and if you are soloing and fall off the top move you land - pretty well unharmed - in the top of a tree a couple of hundred feet below:shock: Well that's what happened to one such person, though I wouldn't want to try and repeat his exploit :lol: :lol: :lol:
past my sell by date
Mountaineer
 
Posts: 1067
Munros:282   Corbetts:86
Fionas:27   Donalds:6
Sub 2000:8   Hewitts:146
Wainwrights:159   
Joined: Apr 24, 2013

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby gaffr » Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:22 am

It just seems that Forum Topics can Migrate easily to other areas :) Not completely a bad thing to happen? but we have strayed a longish way from the pleasures to be found on the Rannoch Wall....apologies to the original Poster. :)
We have now arrived in Borrowdale the home of many accessible crags. Black Crag Buttress came into the picture yesterday...not only just gives folks a chance to blow their horn but, for me, also it revives pleasant memories of those, far better cragsmen than I ever became, that I shared those grand days out on the crags with.
The mentioned Troutdale Pinnacle is very fine with a memorable finish that is also shared, after the left traverse, with the more direct route. My thoughts then migrated to a crag nearby that was reached from behind a rather up-market? hotel.
Fools Paradise was recommended to us. What I recall of that route was a second pitch with a diagonal slight descent and then later a pitch that looked as if some sort of brownish solidified glass like material from the bowels of the Earth had landed up here. The entire valley seemed to be garnished with many classic climbs many of them even more accessible than the two mentioned on here. :)
User avatar
gaffr
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2258
Munros:281   Corbetts:203
Fionas:33   Donalds:14
Sub 2000:11   Hewitts:25
Wainwrights:11   Islands:17
Joined: Oct 25, 2009
Location: Highland.

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby past my sell by date » Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:28 am

Yes Fools Paradise was a great route, but someone was killed when the chockstone on the (final?) pitch fell out in 2005. I'm not sure what it's like now
past my sell by date
Mountaineer
 
Posts: 1067
Munros:282   Corbetts:86
Fionas:27   Donalds:6
Sub 2000:8   Hewitts:146
Wainwrights:159   
Joined: Apr 24, 2013

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby prog99 » Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:42 am

past my sell by date wrote:Yes Fools Paradise was a great route, but someone was killed when the chockstone on the (final?) pitch fell out in 2005. I'm not sure what it's like now

The frcc omitted it from the last selected guidebook, tells you everything you need to know.
I did it 5 years ago and wrote "Still a lot of tottering choss in-between pitches 5 & 6 that's really only held up by a tree root."
User avatar
prog99
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2023
Fionas:130   
Joined: Aug 14, 2013
Location: Highlands

Re: Climbing Agag's Groove | Buachaille Etive Mor

Postby gaffr » Mon Nov 01, 2021 10:07 am

Hello, I knew nothing of what happened on the Fools Paradise.... a very tragic event....my visits there were a long time back during the early seventies....I guess that we all become, in some way, responsible for the wear and tear on these climbs :(
My last visit to this area of the lakes was in Spring 1974 to Falcon, Eagle, Heron and to Quayfoot crags a short time before moving to live in the Highlands.
User avatar
gaffr
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2258
Munros:281   Corbetts:203
Fionas:33   Donalds:14
Sub 2000:11   Hewitts:25
Wainwrights:11   Islands:17
Joined: Oct 25, 2009
Location: Highland.

2 people think this report is great.
Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).




Can you help support Walkhighlands?


Our forum is free from adverts - your generosity keeps it running.
Can you help support Walkhighlands and this community by donating by direct debit?



Return to Walk reports - Scotland

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Becca, disney_ian, litljortindan, nigheandonn, sst1 and 72 guests