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Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)


Postby jwramsay » Sun Jun 19, 2016 9:29 am

Route description: Buachaille Etive Mòr

Munros included on this walk: Stob Dearg (Buachaille Etive Mòr), Stob na Bròige (Buachaille Etive Mòr)

Date walked: 18/06/2016

Time taken: 8 hours

Distance: 8 km

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4K youtube video:


Saturday 18th June 2016 was forecast to be a great day weather wise in the western highlands so I picked Peter Adams up at 7am in Glasgow and we ventured into the Glencoe area, stopping off at Buachaille Etive Mor.

Made in Scotland:
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I'd previously done the Curved Ridge ascent of Stob Dearg but for Peter, whom I'd also completed Aonach Eagach Ridge with, it was a first.

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Curved Ridge is just left of centre:
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Scrambling begins even before reaching the start of The Curved Ridge:
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Folks up ahead on The Curved Ridge:
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Height is gained extremely quickly:
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Panorama of view over Rannoch Moor from Curved Ridge:
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Mountaineers on The Rannoch Wall:
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Binnean Mor of the Mamores with a couple of mountaineers over at North Buttress:
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We are now officially on The Curved Ridge, polished rock, crampon marks, excellent hand and foot holds:
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Peter Adams gets to the end of our first stint:
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We met Joanne & Paul on the curved ridge:
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This guy went up North Buttress and down Curved Ridge - impressive!
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However at the Crowberry Gap we met an old guy who had climbed Ben Nevis via Tower RIdge, descended via Ledge Route, done the Aonach Eagach Ridge and finished off with climbing Stob Dearg via North Buttress and was going to descend Curved Ridge - all before lunch!! WOW!

Onto the next stint:
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Great long lens perspective:
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Same photo wide:
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Now for the "difficult" stint, you need to pull up a bit:
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These people seemed to be practicing with a rope on this bit:
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Rannoch Wall to the left, Pedro and Joanne/Paul to the right:
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Another perspective shot:
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About to tackle the difficult bit:
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Difficult bit conquered and we are almost at the end of Curved Ridge:
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As you can see, I love these long lens perspective shots:
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Peter photographs Rannoch Moor:
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Peter pulls himself up:
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Small cairn marks the end of Curved Ridge:
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End of Curved RIdge with The Rannoch Wall to the left:
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Schiehallion in the distance:
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After completing The Curved Ridge you follow a scree path that heads up behind Crowberry Tower and to the Crowberry Gap:
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Crowberry Tower:
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Crowberry Gap:
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Paul and some other climbers on Crowberry Tower:
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Group of climbers on top of Crowberry Tower:
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My favourite shot from the whole day:
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Nearly there:
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Views down Glen Etive:
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Raven at the summit of Stob Dearg:
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Absolutely amazing climb with views to due for as the weather was just so good. We met a lot of friends enroute, most of who did Crowberry Tower which we did not. We spent ages up top watching the light change on the hills. The views over to Ben Nevis, The Mamores, The Grey Corries and The Essians were just sublime.

Me at the summit, having done it before it doesn't add to my munro tally but Peter claims #84:
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Peter and The Ben:
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The Ben, CMD, Grey Corries & The Mamores:
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The Ben and CMD:
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Having been up there, I can confirm the tip of Binnean Mor is rather cramped:
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The Eastern Mamores:
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Glen Etive munro:
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Ben Starav with Ben Cruachan rear:
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The midges were out in force up top so be beat a retreat down the tourist path back to the main carpark and were offered a lift by a lovely couple back to the waterslab carpark where we had started our Curved Ridge Traverse from.

The Ben from The Red Mountain (Stob Dearg):
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The tourist route:
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Peter on the descent:
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Lonely tree:
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Buachaille Etive Mor:
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This footage is all shot using my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000E 4K camcorder, I hope you enjoy and that it allows you to weigh up whether the Curved Ridge route is for you. (its a full blown scramble that a lot of people use a rope for!)
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jwramsay
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby jamesb63 » Sun Jun 19, 2016 3:11 pm

Nice report Jim , :clap: :clap: I passed by about 3pm on my way back from Torridon
ive never seen the carpark so busy the mountain must have been very busy aswell
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby jwramsay » Sun Jun 19, 2016 4:11 pm

jamesb63 wrote:Nice report Jim , :clap: :clap: I passed by about 3pm on my way back from Torridon
ive never seen the carpark so busy the mountain must have been very busy aswell



Strangely enough, we were at the summit for over an hour and there was a party of 4, 3 and 2 during our time and that was it! I know what you mean about busy carpark, we parked at the waterslab carpark and forded the river to get up to the start of curved ridge - got a lift back from the main carpark by a very kind couple from Perth.
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby jwramsay » Sun Jun 19, 2016 8:40 pm

From a friend wild camping down Glen Etive ...

I'm pretty sure that helicopter was up there for a movie location or something, when we were in Glen Etive 2 Big MPVs exact same with blacked out windows and 2 big fancy cars drove past in a row and left after half hour or so, thought it was a bit strange to have vehicles like that up there
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby Sunset tripper » Tue Jun 21, 2016 1:06 am

Brilliant stuff. Great photos and video. :D
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby jwramsay » Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:19 am

Sunset tripper wrote:Brilliant stuff. Great photos and video. :D


Thanks Sunset Tripper, much appreciated
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby basscadet » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:30 am

Always brilliant to see a route up the front of the Buachaille - beautiful views, memorable times :D
Surprised you went for curved ridge again when there are so many other good scrambles of better quality though, somewhere down the line I've come to think that a day up curved ridge is a waste, probably just because it is so darn short :lol:
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby jwramsay » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:48 am

basscadet wrote:Always brilliant to see a route up the front of the Buachaille - beautiful views, memorable times :D
Surprised you went for curved ridge again when there are so many other good scrambles of better quality though, somewhere down the line I've come to think that a day up curved ridge is a waste, probably just because it is so darn short :lol:


I did it to introduce Peter Adams to Curved Ridge. Next time North Buttress I suppose.
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby basscadet » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:04 am

Aye, thats a cracking route, and the longest, although there is a bit of a serious section if you do it right - Broad buttress is also pretty special, and I would go back there first somehow. Still havent done Lagangarbh, which doesn't look like a long day as you can get down into the corrie pretty easily from the top of it, so there isn't the tortuous descent down the rock steps of woe :D Of course my Dad keeps on saying I should be descending down curved ridge instead, but that seems a little :shock: Maybe one day :roll:
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby jwramsay » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:44 pm

basscadet wrote:Aye, thats a cracking route, and the longest, although there is a bit of a serious section if you do it right - Broad buttress is also pretty special, and I would go back there first somehow. Still havent done Lagangarbh, which doesn't look like a long day as you can get down into the corrie pretty easily from the top of it, so there isn't the tortuous descent down the rock steps of woe :D Of course my Dad keeps on saying I should be descending down curved ridge instead, but that seems a little :shock: Maybe one day :roll:


Can you plot where the route is?
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby basscadet » Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:27 am

jwramsay wrote:
basscadet wrote:Aye, thats a cracking route, and the longest, although there is a bit of a serious section if you do it right - Broad buttress is also pretty special, and I would go back there first somehow. Still havent done Lagangarbh, which doesn't look like a long day as you can get down into the corrie pretty easily from the top of it, so there isn't the tortuous descent down the rock steps of woe :D Of course my Dad keeps on saying I should be descending down curved ridge instead, but that seems a little :shock: Maybe one day :roll:


Can you plot where the route is?


What Broad buttress?

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=43234

Or North Buttress?

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=56948

Lagangarbh - well I won't know until I do it... :wink:
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Re: Buachaille Etive Mor via Curved Ridge in 4K (UHD)

Postby gman » Tue Jun 28, 2016 11:13 am

Lagangarbh:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34820

North Buttress with Great Gully Buttress used as a descent:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=53733

Great Gully Buttress is probably the easiest scramble on the Buachaille so it's a good descent route. Might be tricky finding the start in the clag though.

I like Curved Ridge, good views and there are a few places where there's a bit of variation possible, like doing the steeper wall on the right instead of the crux. I recently went up CR, down GGB then up North Buttress to get practise for Skye - a lot of scrambling in a small area. Good report :clap:
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