BUACHAILLE ETIVE MOR -mountains, frost, sunshine
Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:28 pmhi there,
just a short report on my trip to glencoe last weekend.
some time ago i started to REALLY want to walk the ridge of buachaille etive mor. the thing was that i havent been to the hills for few months and wasnt sure whether tackle that one or just go for something smaller and shorter as a warm up first. but i couldnt get buachaille etive mor out of my head for good few days and i finaly decided to that one.
first time ever i had to get up at 4am to go to the hills and first time i wanted to drive and tackle 4 summits all by myself, i mean without my fellow-walker partner.
getting up wasnt an easy one, but guess what - i managed
and was ready to leave within half an hour.
drive from edi to glencoe usually takes about 2.5hrs in my wee corsa, this time the conditions on M9 were really bad -never seen such mist and fog, i crawled 40mph, pathetic! as i passed callander there was hardly any mist left for the rest of the drive, also the day was breaking, first just the shapes of hills then some greyish colours.
i stopped at the bridge of orchy view point to admire mists and then at rannoch moor - the mists and first light were just breathtaking.
anyway, i arrived to glencoe about 6.30, had a GOOD idea to leave the car at the car park where the track actually finishes (and saved myself some additional walking when i guessed i will be knackered) then i got back to the lagangarbh car park and started the hillwalking day
sunrise was just awesome, the first rays of light combined with frost were just amazing.
i just couldnt stop myself from taking pictures, one after one and then more
i wasnt sure what to expect from the track up the col. i read about horrible loose scree, but to be honest with you, the stage which i really hated was this sandy path just at the very beginning, as the sand just kept escaping from underneath my boots and every time i wanted to be smart and stepped on the rock or a stone it was like a breakdancing because it was all iced all over
path goes more less this way:
and the 'loose scree' stage, which by the way isnt really that bad and i found it a pretty nice and easy walker
and some views to frosty lagangarbh
and here
just before reaching the col there is a little scrabmling (optional) as you can choose to follow the path (right) or just scramble ahead on the right edge of the 'big black gap' or you can actually go via 'big black gap'
the big black gap
whichever way you choose you're very likely to be just a few moments from reaching the col. from here take left to walk towards stob dearg summit. i made the col within 2 hrs.
from the col to stob dearg. the walk takes about 20-30 mins
the views on this stage start to be just amazing and i remember i didnt really bother to pack my camera back to the rucksack anymore
with stob dearg shadow
lagangarbh
summit of stob dearg and rannoch moor
summit, funny enough, the whole day i was meeting the same bunch of people on every summit
and looking back towards the ridge
rannoch moor from stob dearg. amazing how flat it is just before being so nice and mountainy
i was also amazed by the fact that visibility was perfect and from every point of the ridge i was able to see as far as schiehallion awesome!
the ben
the glencoe mates
this is just so great, for so many years of my hillwalking i never tried glencoe and finally this year i visited this place 4 times (just time after time) and i must say that glensoe mountains are my personal mekka
this truly is a magical place
ok, enough of emotional sh**t
getting down from stob dearg and then to stob na doire and looking back and around i was just more and more amazed
next stage -stob na doire ascent is about 20mins. nothing much to say about this summit, maybe just that the descent towards stob coire altruim is a steep one and at this stage i actually took out my pole just to give my knees some relief.
from stob na doire towards stob coire altruim and the second munro of the day -stob na broige (shy one) timewise, i walked stob coire altruim and stob na broige in 30 mins
back to stob na doire (doesnt it remind you of a squid head?)
and towards stob na broige
from the last two summits i had awesome views although weather got wee bit worse and i started feeling wind getting thru to me
towards glen etive
stob na broige summit shelter
going down, back to the path getting me to lairig gartain, this time creise appeared in all its glory
and i had a great moment when the sunlight tried to get thru the clouds
the path down to lairig gartain is known to be very steep, thats what munro book says anyway (therefore i expected something as rough as getting down to lost valley), i was pleasantly surprised and didnt find it too steep nor too challeging. the problem were those big rock slabs (about half way down) which were pretty plain, wet and large. i had some problems here and actually got my adrenaline level risen ..slightly actually i thought to myself that 'never again blah blah blah..'
the path goes more less here (time: about 1 hr to lairig gartain)
and when i finally reached lairig gartain i was relieved looks so 'innocent' doesnt it? killer moment for me, definitely
the way back to the car park via lairig gartain was a nice one (approx 20min). the sun came out just between stob coire altruim and stob dubh and the sunset light was great and warm. i read that the path used to be boggy and wet, well it still was pretty wet but now it is a proper path, just perfect for making my knees and legs relaxed after those horrible slabs!
towards the car park
the path
just to sum up, the day was great, and although i said to myself 'never again' after those bloo**dy slabs, i cant actually wait to come back. it was a 7hrs walk for me. i think of myself as a very lucky person to see sunrise and sunset on the same 'track', that was an experience to me, the one i will try to repeat ASAP.
very happy and thinking of doing it in winter with snow and all the glamour
guys, if you prefer LESS TALKING AND MORE PICTURES just click here
http://around-scotland.blogspot.com/2011/11/buachaille-etive-mor-stob-dearg-stob-na.html
enjoy
just a short report on my trip to glencoe last weekend.
some time ago i started to REALLY want to walk the ridge of buachaille etive mor. the thing was that i havent been to the hills for few months and wasnt sure whether tackle that one or just go for something smaller and shorter as a warm up first. but i couldnt get buachaille etive mor out of my head for good few days and i finaly decided to that one.
first time ever i had to get up at 4am to go to the hills and first time i wanted to drive and tackle 4 summits all by myself, i mean without my fellow-walker partner.
getting up wasnt an easy one, but guess what - i managed
and was ready to leave within half an hour. drive from edi to glencoe usually takes about 2.5hrs in my wee corsa, this time the conditions on M9 were really bad -never seen such mist and fog, i crawled 40mph, pathetic! as i passed callander there was hardly any mist left for the rest of the drive, also the day was breaking, first just the shapes of hills then some greyish colours.
i stopped at the bridge of orchy view point to admire mists and then at rannoch moor - the mists and first light were just breathtaking.
anyway, i arrived to glencoe about 6.30, had a GOOD idea to leave the car at the car park where the track actually finishes (and saved myself some additional walking when i guessed i will be knackered)
then i got back to the lagangarbh car park and started the hillwalking day sunrise was just awesome, the first rays of light combined with frost were just amazing.
i just couldnt stop myself from taking pictures, one after one and then more
i wasnt sure what to expect from the track up the col. i read about horrible loose scree, but to be honest with you, the stage which i really hated was this sandy path just at the very beginning, as the sand just kept escaping from underneath my boots and every time i wanted to be smart and stepped on the rock or a stone it was like a breakdancing because it was all iced all over
path goes more less this way:
and the 'loose scree' stage, which by the way isnt really that bad and i found it a pretty nice and easy walker
and some views to frosty lagangarbh
and here
just before reaching the col there is a little scrabmling (optional) as you can choose to follow the path (right) or just scramble ahead on the right edge of the 'big black gap' or you can actually go via 'big black gap'
the big black gap
whichever way you choose you're very likely to be just a few moments from reaching the col. from here take left to walk towards stob dearg summit. i made the col within 2 hrs.
from the col to stob dearg. the walk takes about 20-30 mins
the views on this stage start to be just amazing and i remember i didnt really bother to pack my camera back to the rucksack anymore
with stob dearg shadow
lagangarbh
summit of stob dearg and rannoch moor
summit, funny enough, the whole day i was meeting the same bunch of people on every summit
and looking back towards the ridge
rannoch moor from stob dearg. amazing how flat it is just before being so nice and mountainy
i was also amazed by the fact that visibility was perfect and from every point of the ridge i was able to see as far as schiehallion
awesome!the ben
the glencoe mates
this is just so great, for so many years of my hillwalking i never tried glencoe and finally this year i visited this place 4 times (just time after time) and i must say that glensoe mountains are my personal mekka
this truly is a magical place
ok, enough of emotional sh**t
getting down from stob dearg and then to stob na doire and looking back and around i was just more and more amazed
next stage -stob na doire ascent is about 20mins. nothing much to say about this summit, maybe just that the descent towards stob coire altruim is a steep one and at this stage i actually took out my pole just to give my knees some relief.
from stob na doire towards stob coire altruim and the second munro of the day -stob na broige (shy one) timewise, i walked stob coire altruim and stob na broige in 30 mins
back to stob na doire (doesnt it remind you of a squid head?)
and towards stob na broige
from the last two summits i had awesome views although weather got wee bit worse and i started feeling wind getting thru to me
towards glen etive
stob na broige summit shelter
going down, back to the path getting me to lairig gartain, this time creise appeared in all its glory
and i had a great moment when the sunlight tried to get thru the clouds
the path down to lairig gartain is known to be very steep, thats what munro book says anyway (therefore i expected something as rough as getting down to lost valley), i was pleasantly surprised and didnt find it too steep nor too challeging. the problem were those big rock slabs (about half way down) which were pretty plain, wet and large. i had some problems here and actually got my adrenaline level risen ..slightly
actually i thought to myself that 'never again blah blah blah..' the path goes more less here (time: about 1 hr to lairig gartain)
and when i finally reached lairig gartain i was relieved
looks so 'innocent' doesnt it? killer moment for me, definitelythe way back to the car park via lairig gartain was a nice one (approx 20min). the sun came out just between stob coire altruim and stob dubh and the sunset light was great and warm. i read that the path used to be boggy and wet, well it still was pretty wet but now it is a proper path, just perfect for making my knees and legs relaxed after those horrible slabs!
towards the car park
the path
just to sum up, the day was great, and although i said to myself 'never again' after those bloo**dy slabs, i cant actually wait to come back. it was a 7hrs walk for me. i think of myself as a very lucky person to see sunrise and sunset on the same 'track', that was an experience to me, the one i will try to repeat ASAP.
very happy and thinking of doing it in winter with snow and all the glamour
guys, if you prefer LESS TALKING AND MORE PICTURES just click here
http://around-scotland.blogspot.com/2011/11/buachaille-etive-mor-stob-dearg-stob-na.html
enjoy
The early rise paid off!! 
