We'd just had a lovely two days up ben Starav and its associates and got back to the car about 3 o'clock on Sunday the 1st, but with 24 hours to go before picking up our daughter off the bus in Tarbet, we decided there was plenty of time for another wee Munro on Monday morning.
The last time we were up Buaichaille Etive Mor was more than 20 years ago. we'd had a great week getting ourselves along Aonach Eagach, up to Bidean, and the Beinn a Bheithir horseshoe and camping in Glencoe alongside a group of Boy Scouts. we had another couple of days to go and decided to tackle the Big Bookle, of course in those days it was only one munro up there. We had gone up by the Coire na Tulaich where one of the Boy Scouts had been hit by a falling rock and injured, and we had encountered Hamish McInnes and a helicopter. Sitting on the top looking out over Rannoch Moor we had suddenly felt very small and fragile, and the mountains so very big and inscrutable, we had to go home without going to the other end of the ridge!
so here we were on a lovely spring day having Stob na Broige unconquered, it seemed like a good way to fill in the time. After a rest and a feed, we set off up the Lairig Gartain and made our little camp at about 450 metres near the allt Coire Altruim.
The path up the lairig is well made and maintained, strikingly different from the paths around the bottom of Ben Starav.
Next morning, we stashed the camping gear behind a rock and set off, reaching the top of Stob na Broige at about half past nine. Great views from here down to Starav and Loch Etive where we'd been the day before. On the way up we passed a number of white bags of rocks where path construction was being undertaken.
not sure who that odd-looking woman is though!
Well we still had plenty of time and who could pass up walking along such a lovely ridge on such a fine day? Trouble was, we had left our camping gear at the bottom so we had to do the whole ridge twice. would we have time?
We decided it was worth the effort, so not too much time was spent stopping for photies.
apart from a wee rest on the top
and a bite to eat on the way back on the top of Stob na Doire, where there was not a breath of wind.
Here's the top of coire Altruim on the way down, where we met the two guys who were constructing the path and stopped for a wee chat. I was very impressed the way they moved these huge rocks around and slotted them into place with just a crowbar and a spade.
So back down to the car and a change of shoes and we were in plenty of time to meet the bus, and sadly home and back to work the next day. A very successful weekend.
