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Well, what a day that was!
Coming to the end of 2 weeks of annual leave I decided to try and book a night away and catch a few Munros before returning to work. After a bit of research and booking an Air BnB in Drumnadrochit I settled on Buchaille Etive Mor on the way up and the 2 at Loch Lochy on the way down on the Friday. I had checked the weather and it had looked like it would be okay at least on Thursday and hopefully improving on Friday.
Now I'm not particularly superstitious but they say bad things come in threes... Bad Thing number one was me overfilling my camelback on Wednesday night and it leaking over my waterproofs in my bag. Bad Thing number two was me forgetting to put my contacts on before I left the car.(My glasses steam up constantly when walking.) And Bad Thing three was me losing my way on the ridge, coming off the wrong side and having to scramble/slide down a daft route and being very lucky to make it back to the car in one piece!!
Now for the long version....
- Its up there somewhere!
- Bridge posing!
- Start of the path up
- Clag starting to close in
I had set off about 6.30 from Bathgate and after a quick pit stop at the Green Welly Stop arrived at the car park and set off for 8.45ish. The path was good and we made sure to take the right fork to take the walkers route. We entered into the coire and the path began to climb steeply, with some slight scrambling over the burn required. The weather was closing in and didn't look like shifting. The going was still pretty steep and the rain was starting now. I went for the waterproofs but then remembered the accident last night
Still, my jacket was fine and Cooper was enjoying sniffing out the path upwards. After an hour or so of hard slog I stopped for a breather and consulted the map. I reckoned we were about 3/4 of the way up to the ridge. The path at this point was quite hard to find and I think we had come off it slightly and as the clag had come in it was hard to pinpoint it. Luckily I heard some voices to my right and it was two people coming down on the path. I asked them if they had been up already but they said they didn't fancy the scramble at the top so were leaving it for today. I was slightly perturbed at this as I hadn't seen any scrambling mentioned at this point on any previous reports
Nonetheless we carried on upwards, very steep steps at this point and eventually came to the scrambly section right at the top of the Coire onto the ridge. I found it ok but the rain certainly didn't help and I took my time making sure that my feet weren't going to slip before moving on up. Thankfully this didn't last too long and it was a relief to make the ridge.
I turned left and headed up towards Stob Dearg. This went on a little bit longer than I expected and the path wasn't quite as obvious, it reminded me a bit of the top of Schiehallion but the boulders weren't quite as big. The ridge narrowed and we reached the top at about 11. Good enough timing I felt. A quick bite to eat and we headed back down to the bealach.
We got down to the junction for the path back down the Coire quick enough and pushed on. This section was reasonably flat and I was happy with the time we were making. Then we came to the long climb up towards Stob na Doire. This was pretty hard going as it is quite steep and seems to go on for a long time with a few false summits. We finally arrived and this is where things started to go downhill.....
Quote from the Walkhighlands route guide "
Care is needed at the summit in poor visibility, as the terrain has led some walkers to descend southeast from this point; note the turn in the ridge for the descent to the next bealach." I'm sure you can guess what happened next. The clag was thick here and visibility was pretty poor. I chacked the map a few times and was sure I had turned enough to avoid the SE descent, but.... I hadn't!
We descended on some loose scree to start and I felt I was following a path but I think in hindsight this was just a rock chute. I descended a bit further and began to get a bit worried I had missed the path. I was sure that I had turned right enough at the top however and so instead of turning West to regain the path turned further East, looking for a path that was nowhere near where I was. I think if i'd been a bit more experienced I would have turned and went back to the summit to try again but at this point I didn't feel as though I would be able to make it back up the scree so kept on going down. There were a few hairy bits in the scree and I crossed over a few chutes trying to find some sort of path. The cloud cleared for a brief second and I could see a road in the distance at the bottom of the glen. I'm sure you have worked out that this was the Glen Etive road but in my mind I thought this was the Lairig Gartain road/path. I felt if I could work my way to my left I would hit the down path eventually and that would let us complete the route. I think I had given up on the second Munro at this point.
- We came down here
I dropped down after a few stumbles and slips and the scree gave way to grass and heather. I felt this was positive as at least we were losing height. However the terrain got worse with sheer cliffs and the grass was very slippery with the rain. I think it was at this point I realised I was in some real bother. I checked my phone but It was almost dead and had no signal anyway. ( A GPS is getting purchased!!!) Cooper could also clearly sense things weren't right and was requiring a lot of cajoling to get him to keep coming down. He is fine going up but there were times he had to drop down little drops and it wasn't obvious where the best route was he was panicking and barking a lot. I had to resort to sliding down some sections as I felt that was a slightly better option than trying to stand and maybe falling.
- Slightly Further down
We reached our nadir about 2/3 of the way down just as we were coming out of the clag. Again I could see the road but I could not see any route down. We were surrounded by cliffs with 20-30ft drops all around. I had managed to keep calm most of the way down by looking ahead slightly and planning a route down little by little. At this point however I was close to panicking and really thought we had had it. I stopped and had a bite to eat and feed Cooper a little, it took a few minutes to gather myself before I could go on again. I seen a little route round an outcrop and managed to find a slightly easier route down. At this point I was soaked through and was beginning to feel tired as well as noticing the little cuts and scrapes I had picked up when coming down. I really had to struggle with Cooper as he was not happy at all on this section. There were times I had to hold him in my lap and slide down a few meters, which he was not a fan of at all. This final section also had a few 7-8ft drops which had to be navigated. This was a real challenge as I had to lie flat and try to lower Cooper by his hips so he could stretch out his paws and then drop him down. I dropped my bag down first and on the last one of these it rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled about 200ft away from where we were. This was a stark reminder of what could happen to us but I managed to keep it together and after this last drop I knew we had pretty much made it past the worst section. I managed to retrieve my bag and by now the road was much closer. A slow walk down the much less steep slopes was pretty uneventful until my left leg disappeared into a bog and left me flat on my face! After the day I'd had I just had to laugh at this!
I finally made it to the road and, given I thought I was on the West of the ridge, turned right along the narrow road. "I'll be back at the car soon!" After a couple of miles and checking my map a few times I got the feeling something wasn't right. I stopped a passing car and a kind couple from Alnwick informed me that we had been walking the wrong way! They must have been able to see I was struggling and very kindly offered us a lift back to the car. Such a generous offer given that I was soaked through and Cooper was black! If you are reading this thank you so much, absolute heroes! We reached the A82 and came out at the King's House junction. It was only at this point that I realised the scale of my mistake! I have never been more glad to get back to the car. I got into some dry clothes and drove onto Drumnadrochit for some fish and chips and a sausage for Cooper! I decided not to do the Loch Lochy two given the state of my gear.
- Reward for a very good boy!
I know that a more experienced walker probably wouldn't have got themselves into such a situation but I wrote this report so hopefully others don't make the same mistake! I know I'm lucky to have got down without anymore than a few bumps and bruises. A GPS will certainly be invested in and I can
"Put this down to experience" as my dad told me after I informed him what had happened! Sorry for the long length of report but hopefully it helps!