
Left work, and made the journey down to Lochearnhead where I ditched Sunny and transferred my stuff to Dougie’s car, only forgetting a few essentials..





Saturday morning came, and it was a bit dreichit and cold.





We headed over the bridge.

And into the woods by the church. There were signs for grey mare’s tail and we thought we might as well swing by for a look.




The spray was immense, but what bonny falls


The via farrata continued, spiralling up the cliffs, but there is a very discouraging sign there, basically saying you aren’t allowed to go any further, and the first section was missing, so you couldn’t get up there easily

We retraced our steps over the assault course, and took the path uphill.

Above the tree line, the classic Loch Leven views opened up and we ate our picnic by a wee stream.


By the time we got going again, it really did feel like it would be getting dark before long,


Saturday night passed far too quickly..



Sunday came, and the tent was stiff with ice!




Glen Coe was looking even more spectacular than usual on our way through – Aonach Eagach was looking so fine, she almost got another beating.. But that would have been

As usual parking at Altnafeadh was problematic.


We set off along the west highland way, quickly getting too hot in the sunshine.

The route we had in mind is called Pink Rib and is directly above the Buachaille climbers car park. It is remarkably easy to find, being very prominent on the hillside.


We left the WHW, and climbed up alongside a dry river bed. From here the going got significantly steeper. There was the faintest trace of a path – we certainly weren’t the first to come this way, yet still it was steep enough to be ‘heather scrambling’ terrain – Knackered and hot in no time at all..

There was an interesting bird soaring and hovering above, and it looked like a hen harrier to me, although I didn't know you got them in Glen Coe, so maybe it was something else.. Was a really magnificant sight against the azure skies though

We stopped to re-fuel below the first outcrop of rock , the views over to the Buachaille stunning and distracting.. The breeze was chilly so it was soon time to start the climb..



This first section, was the hardest, I managed to traverse round into a corner, with no way up.. Dougie scrambled past me, but I still couldn’t see a way up, back or sideward – what a good start! Managed to edge myself out of it eventually, obviously in a very graceful fashion.

There were a couple of these 10 foot rocky steps, intermingled with heather, before we were up to the bottom of the rib proper.

It starts off at a shallow angle – no hands required, but the camber soon steepens and big firm holds take you over the first lip..



The terrain steepened again, giving a really good section of scrambling, it looked like the top of the rock wasn’t far away though,



Before long the snow was fairly deep and it became a slog. I sent Dougie out in front to break trail, heading for the main path that we knew would be so much easier.

When we made it to the ridge, we found the troop of walkhighlanders, just descending from the summit, all babbling about how bonny the views were up top..







We sat for about half an hour, taking many photos and making short work of our pieces. The descent, was a joy up above the snowline – had forgotten how much fun it was to throw yourself down a snowy hill with gay abandon..



There was a low flying helecopter put down at Altnafeadh.. Spot the chopper in this photo..


We were soon down in the slushy stuff, the path saturated, boggy and slippery..


By the time we were back at the main road, we had almost caught up with the rest of the gang, and we said our goodbyes in the lay-by – a little bit sad that another meet was over,


It had been a short day, so a meander down the road, via green welly and a pub for dinner, still got me home at a reasonable time.

