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After having a failed attempt at these two munro's in January due to heavy snow and high winds I was looking forward to bagging them with my son Andrew on clear and sunny saturday morning in May. We headed up the Coire nan Lochan and got caught in a downpour half way up
. The path up is clear but has eroded in places, at the top of the glen a scree/boulder path leads up to another flat area at the foot of Stob Coire nan Lochan.
A view lookig back down to Glencoe.
We took the North ridge up over the summit of StobCoire nan Lochan where we had some great views looking down at Loch Leven and over to the Aonach Eagach ridge
- Aonach Eagach ridge
From the summit of StobCoire nan Lochan we followed the ridge that leads to Bidean nan Biam, I was surprised to see so much snow still here as in places it is still 300mm deep. The ascent from the ridge looked quite a challenge and I was a bit wary as we did'nt have any winter gear with us but once underway the climb was pretty staight forward
- Bidean nan Bian from StobCoire nan Lochan
From Bidean we followed the ridge South East over several summits which all still have a deep covering of snow till we reached the foot of Stob Coire Sgreamhach
- Stob Coire Sgreamhach
We stopped for a bit of lunch here before climbing Stob Coire Sgreamhach , the ascent is very straight forward and once at the top we retraced our steps back down to pick up the path that leads down to Allt Coire Gabhail. The route description on walkhighlands states that this section is very steep with loose scree, this is true but with the recent heavy snow fall and the snowice we could'nt pick a safe route back down. If we had crampons or an ice axe we may have attempted it but after 20mins spent scrambling about we decided to return via the way we came. Our luck turned for the worse again here as the weather turned on us with the wind picking up and it started to snow. ( my mind was turning back to a certain day in January). Luckily it did'nt last long and the sun came out again on the long walk back to the car.