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This route has been in the plan for sometime but for various reasons I’d had to hold it off until now. I’d considered using two cars or a car/bike combination for these hills but finally decided on the loop option requiring a fairly long walk out at the end.
Weather forecast was looking good although likely to be hazy – probably as good as it was going to get though. Only problem – Ken hadn’t walked up a hill since last October and it had been a good few weeks since I’d been out.
So, early on, we decided to take it easy, enjoy the good weather, not rush and take lots of breaks (that’s our excuse anyway and we still got sunburnt).
Ken also had his new Scarpas on for the first time – this would be a fair old walk to break them in.
Picked Ken up early and we drove up to the Glencoe Mountain Resort car park – which was surprisingly empty. The promised weather was looking good with early morning sunshine but it was obviously very hazy. Headed off up the track to the base of the chairlifts where we picked up a sort of a track and headed up the hill close to the chair lift tow cables.
Straightforward enough climb and we arrived at the top heading over to the right to get to the cairn.
Great views from the summit of the surrounding hills and our next targets although it was apparent that the haze wasn’t going to go quickly (or not at all as it turned out).
The ridge leading up to the midpoint between Clach Leathad and Creise looked a bit daunting from Meall a’Bhuiridh but once on it it turned out to be straightforward. This often seems to be the case.
Stob Ghabhar did look rather far away in the haze and we were beginning to wonder if we were doing the right thing.
Towards the end of the ridge we looked back up to Meall a’Bhuiridh which looked daunting but certainly didn’t seem that way during the decent.
Nice view over towards Clach Leathad and then towards Creise as we got up to the cairn which marks the top end of the ridge.
From the cairn it’s a nice walk up to Creise’s summit. The wind was a lot stronger at this point but blowing more from the east so no real problems.
Heading back down towards Clach Leathad we got a good view towards Loch an Easain and Creag an Fhirich although beyond in the distance it was very hazy.
Looking back we could see the full ridge back to Meall a’Bhuiridh which seemed a lot sharper from this angle. At the top of Clach Leathad there’s a big dry stone circular shelter. Good place to stop for more refreshments.
From there we headed SW down to the Bealach Fuar-chathaidh. This descent was quite hard going with a fair bit of loose rock under foot. We could see over towards Glas Choirean which leads up to the Aonach Mor ridge.
Walking over the bealach, we could see westwards up Coire Ghiubhasan towards Glen Etive but the distant hills were still obscured by haze.
We then skirted round right to avoid having to go up over the top of the rocky outcrop on the way up Glas Choirean.
Once over this bit we had a nice walk up the broad ridge to the final stages of Stob Ghabhar. Met the first person we’d seen all day here – he was walking the opposite direction but had covered the route both ways a number of times before.
Reached the summit cairn which has a stone on top with “To Pepe” painted on it. Met and spoke with two women walkers who had come up from Stob a’Choire Odhair. There were a few more walkers round the summit and approaching at this stage.
From here we could see the final hill of the day, Stob a’Choire Odhair and the little Aonach Eagach ridge. We’d read a few reports about this and weren’t sure what to expect – the wind had got up again but there were other walkers around so we assumed it would be OK.
We had a good, long stop here for lunch sitting in the stone shelter out of the wind. Very pleasant in the warm sunshine. Then we headed off down towards the ridge. From further back there are parts which look as though they could be tricky but it turned out to be a fairly straightforward walk across which didn’t take long at all. It’s a long way down but there’s a path across and only a few points where you’d need to put your hands on the rock.
It was somewhat different descending down from the buttress at the end of the ridge before crossing to Stob a’Choire Odhair. It was steep with a lot of loose stones, rocks and scree under foot. At this point we thought back to the two women we met back at the top of Stob Ghabhar who were glad they had ascended this way; we were thinking that we were glad we had descended as we reckoned going up may have been worse.
Next a fairly easy sustained climb to Stob a’Choire Odhair. Another stop for food and photos and a quick check of the map and compass and a rather strange thing happened.
Sitting on a rock checking the bearing towards Beinn Toaig, the compass wanted to send us more or less back the way we’d come ! We both checked and rechecked it, still with the same result. I then got up to walk over and get my spare compass from my rucksack and the needle moved abruptly; now showed the right direction. So, I walked back to the rock and the compass needle swung back the wrong way. Couldn’t see anything obviously metallic around so we have no idea what happened.
From here we headed SE over the top of Beinn Toaig and then NE to join the WHW close to the lochan before Ba Bridge.
At Ba Bridge we stopped for photos – the one below looks SE (not the best attempt at bracketed exposures and HDR).
Then followed a rather long walk back up the WHW towards Glencoe. The haze had not lifted all day but this did mean some rather nice layer effect views of the hills such as the view to Buachaille Etive Mor on the final approach to the car park.
Back at the carpark, there were two camper vans and another car – deserted apart from that. Got changed and headed off for home stopping just outside Blackrock Cottage for a quick touristy type photo.
