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Four in Glencoe in epic weather

Four in Glencoe in epic weather


Postby scotdavid63 » Sun Jun 19, 2016 3:25 pm

Munros included on this walk: Creise, Meall a' Bhùiridh, Stob Dearg (Buachaille Etive Mòr), Stob na Bròige (Buachaille Etive Mòr)

Date walked: 18/06/2016

Time taken: 8.5 hours

Distance: 22 km

Ascent: 1960m

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Saturday 18th June was the day of the week by far in terms of weather forecast and, with long days just now, rude not to take on a decent challenge. None of the walks off the A82 up here are that long so figured we could do the Big Buckle, have lunch at the ski centre, then rock up from there to bag two more.
Set off from Edinburgh 6.55am, clear roads, even in Callander so out of car at Altnfeadh bang on 8.55am. Already cracking sunshine and car park was busy (even busier when we got back at 1.40pm)
Lots of other posters have written this one up, suffice to say that me, the boy, the dog (just the big one today) and a friend who is in training for the Artemis Quad in early July, enjoyed a fairly decent pace up to the ridge. Path is great, places for dog to drink and yes it is fairly steep therefore sweaty in the sun but nought to complain about, not even a midge (more on that later). As we hit the ridge the sky over on the Glen Etive side was bright azure blue, better than the med. Effing hot now though and a wee breeze was extremely welcome. It's not far over to Stob Dearg so Munro number one bagged well in an hour and a half, 3.2km.
What this does do, however, is set a subconscious expectation and we almost assumed that Stob na Doire was the next one, doubtless some working group and sub committee can explain why this is not a Munro because it feels like one and by the time we did get to Stob na Broige we had also had to convince a young lady that Stob Coire Altruim was not a Munro either. Anyway, took us 50 minutes to cover that 2.2km across to the second Munro. Views by now were absolutely awesome, Loch Etive, Mamores, wee Buckle, most of the tops in Scotland in fact.
Down to the path off , refilled water bottles (dog refilled himself and had a bath or two), yes the wee walk back tot he car park is annoying but dog was fine with it - back at car in 5 hours dead on,13km bang on, just as the reports say,1184m ascent on that walk. Just inside Naismith's rule of 4km per hour and 10mins per 100m. We could have gone a wee bit faster but our guest walker has had a poor month in terms of training for the Quad so he was putting in a major shift to keep up (the boy has me struggling to keep up these days !). I had hoped for 4.5hrs ...

Short drive to ski centre, wolfed GlenCoe burgers (haggis pattie with Venison burger on top, in a roll, with chips AND salad) - not quite pasta but damn tasty. Now the wee debate noting the plan had to be back in Edinburgh at 8ish ... Succumbed to the idea of using the chairlift and walking light. The general plan had been that if we ate lunch at the ski centre then that was less food to carry, also could split snacks into morning and afternoon, less of an issue with water as well.
Paid the money, got on the chair about 2.30pm, 52mins and 1.8km from top of access Chair to Meall a Bhuiridh. It's an OK trudge up under the chair lift, pretty direct and steep, am sure you can head to the spur/shoulder on the north side if you want to talk it slower and easier. The best thing here though is the view across to the Creise ridge and the cathedral like crags underneath it, particularly on the West side, absolutely awesome. Loads of paragliders up today as well and we could feel the thermals even as we walked.
Now then, some other folks there warned that the bealach on the way across (only 932m by the way so not much drop) was shady, still and midgy. Well that was understatement of the day - it was humid, sticky and the suncream made for an interesting sheen on my arms in which hundreds of midges drowned. Really grotty :( There is some minor scrambling up on the far side but nothing to worry anyone really, nothing airy.
Got to the Creise summit in 46mins from the first Munro, 2km on from that one (had been my guess in advance). Lovely spot and met two guys who had tramped over from Glen Orchy, great job for them, have looked at that walk before and wished I had perhaps chosen it for today had we had two cars. The lads said they had only walked 12 miles so far by taking some smart routes compared to some of the reports.
For us, back to to MaB then focussed on finding more water, dog thirsty and hot, we were out by then as well having left the bigger rucksack in the car at the ski centre. There is a burn under the chair which we saw on the way up so enjoyed some really fresh and cold mountain water (I often do this, I know some folks worry but has never been a problem for me, if it's running and no dead sheep in sight then nothing beats it and it also goes well in a dram when I get home). Back down to the access chairlift endpoint and then down the path to the ski centre. The path down the front is in pretty poor shape but its gets you there. 8.7km in 3hrs 38mins with 780m of ascent (you save about 330m by using the chairlift up. Enjoyed a cool (but sadly not ice cold) diet coke at the cafe before battering down the road to get to Edinburgh at 8.45pm. 14hr trip, 4hrs in the car, about an hour eating and drinking, half an hour faffing in and out of car so pretty decent effort all in. With the weather like this, again this year, I think we have had some of the best days out of my life in 2016 already, remarkable !

Next trips planned = Mamores, the north Cluanie five and finish Glen Coe (need two cars for AE ridge though) plus knock off a few more around Bridge of/Glen Orchy, looking forward to a great summer !

Have tried to use flickr for fist time, hope the photos show up !

https://www.flickr.com/gp/93579771@N06/J0Aa1p
scotdavid63
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Re: Four in Glencoe in epic weather

Postby OpenC » Sun Jun 19, 2016 4:22 pm

The photos showed up and are enough for me to identify that I met you all on Stob Dearg a couple of times yesterday :) Hell of a walk (well, two walks; hell of a day), well done :)
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OpenC
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Re: Four in Glencoe in epic weather

Postby scotdavid63 » Mon Jun 20, 2016 2:01 pm

Aha, great, saw the raven up top briefly ! Sounds like you had a great day too !
scotdavid63
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Posts: 87
Munros:282   
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Joined: Jul 10, 2011
Location: Edinburgh

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