A moody misty wee Bookil

[kmai1961]

A bit of a last-minute decision; for me, last-minute does mean the day before. The MWIS Thurs morning forecast for Friday wasn’t very good, but had improved slightly by the afternoon. Sat and Sun were both looking pretty grim, weather-wise. I was loathe to not have a walk planned for the weekend, and decided that I was up for the drive to Glencoe to tackle the short and straightforward Buachaille Etive Beag on my own. I’m ever so happy to be building a posse of walking pals, but am also mindful that always going out with someone carries the consequence of undermining the confidence I’ve built in going by myself.

Left home early (4:15), and arrived at the car park just after 6:00. Quickly threw on the boots—the midges were voracious!—and was on my way up the hill by 6:15. Reached the bealach (Mam Buidhe) @7:15, took a bearing (just for practice; there’s a clear path that can’t be missed) and headed in that direction to Stob Coire Raineach. Across the glen, the mist was swirling around Aonach Eagach, and moving so quickly that I struggled to get even one decent photo. Just looking at the ridge still makes me a bit queasy.

Stob nan Cabar -- love the layers of mist!

Across to Aonach Eagach

I spent a few minutes on the summit before descending to the bealach. Had I known at the time that I was going to have zero view from Stob Damh, I’d’ve lingered longer, as I was aware at the time that I was enjoying a perfect Glencoe morning; the tops were playing and hide and seek from within the mist at the same time it flowed up and down through the glens. I revelled in the view and the solitude.

Stob Damh disappeared, appeared, and disappeared again. When I reached the cairn at 900m, the mist had settled in, and stayed settled as I meandered across the ridge to the summit. Just for laughs, I carried on to the cairn at the south end of the ridge (the “finest viewpoint” according to the WH route description), and looked down in the general direction of Loch Etive, buried somewhere beneath the cloud.

Stob Damh clear

Mist encroaching

Same (no) view in every direction

I returned to the summit, and settled in to see if the clag would break. Eventually, I got chilled as a result of being quite wet from the mist, and started back down to the bealach. I mentally added to the list (it’s a fairly long one) another hill to which I’d want to return under better conditions.

I returned to the car by 10:30, and headed back in slow summer traffic, arriving home at around 13:00. Yes, I’d had a gawd-awful early start; yes, there’d been midges in the millions; yes, I got wet and cold, and yes, there were no views on summit #2. Finally, it was a slow and frustrating drive home. But for all intents and purposes, I’d had all of Buachaille Etive Beag to myself for a few hours during the height of the summer school holidays. And I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way