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13...unlucky for some?!
Having deliberated long and hard about even attempting this grade 3 scramble, weighing-up my more than healthy, verging on phobic, respect for heights against the fact I’d be doing it with at least two competent others, the day had arrived and we set-off at a leisurely 8.15am. I had read several accounts of the route and changed my mind on whether I was going or not with every one of them. I followed a link from one WH thread to Milesy’s photo-blog on the route from August 2010, this was the clincher for me. Yeah, it looks scary but they’re clearly having fun so, hope you don’t mind me re-posting the link here
http://atthebealach.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/buachaille-etive-mor-north-buttress.htmlThanks for helping save me from missing out on something pretty special, having done it now I can vouch for the fact that your pictures give a very accurate account of what to expect up there.
Two hours later, we were parking up beneath the mighty Buachaille Etive Mor. I’ve driven through here many times, marvelling at the hill from the road in all weathers, but had yet to set foot on it...until now. The rain had fallen steadily all the way up but subsided as we pulled into the parking area near the bothy / lodge by Altnafeadh. Although wet on the way up the road, the rain stopped and stayed off all day thankfully, easing some of my concerns about its effect on the rock, but the summit was shrouded in clag and although it would lift a little, it never fully cleared the summit. The air was pretty cool as well and we were dressed more for March than June.
Setting off on foot at 10.30am, we followed the track over the bridge across the River Coupall, skirting to the left of the bothy and on to the fork in the path, where we stayed left and this took us beneath the Great Gully...
...and on to the start of the North Buttress ascent, the start marked by two large boulders precariously perched on a ledge above. On reaching this we crossed the small waterfall, gained a few more feet and then stopped to don helmet and harness.
There were six of us, we split into two groups of three with those who know what they were doing front and rear, newbies
(i.e. those who haven't a clue) in the middle. I’m not that superstitious but, it’s fair to say, the fact this would be my 13th Munro
(by chance rather than design) had entered my mind once or twice in the couple of weeks since completing 11 (Glas Maol) and 12 (Creag Leacach).
What do you mean by "we're going up there"?...
For the next couple of hours, I was concentrating hard on my role in this three-way which took my mind off the exposure but, there was plenty time to take this in while waiting for the others to make their moves ahead. The feeling of responsibility is acute and, while concentration plays a big part, I was really enjoying myself, emerging from many of the sections, especially the chimney sections, with a huge grin and hyperbole-a-go-go.
At one point we found ourselves slightly off track and had to traverse briefly to reach the chimney sections. Allied to the fact it was a little more damp in parts here leading to the odd slip, this was probably the most exposed I’d felt thus far.
Mummy...
It does offer great views though and I'm now wishing I'd brought my daughter's much better camera but I didn't trust myself enough to be able to hold it with two hands at any point...some of the shaky shots from my point and shoot are testament to that...
Such was the intensity, I lost a couple of hours on the way up, my watch beeped and I glanced at it expecting it to read 12pm…it was 2pm. This also explained why I was ravenous and we still had a bit to go. We stopped shortly after this to re-fuel, it was possible to make out the silhouette of Crowberry Tower through the clag from here. It was a brief stop as we were in the clag now and didn’t want to cool down too much.
We only had about 150m to go and the scrambling became more “slabby” , which was interesting enough and probably moreso had the clag not been down. Before long, after clambering over another slabby section and walking a short way, we were up, over and, all of a sudden, at the summit...all too soon, it was just before 3pm so it had taken approximately 4.5hrs from the van.
Cheshire cat...
We took ten minutes to sort-out the gear, remove the harnesses, keeping the helmets on for the time-being and then set off for the descent via Coire Tulaich, passing the second cairn on the summit of Stob Dearg on route.
Stob na Doire looked very inviting but we were out of time and I’m not too disappointed, I’m confident of being back.
The descent is very steep and we’re down and out in no more than an hour. The well trodden, chute-like route of descent. Very steep initially and just sort of spits you out...
A wonderful day, never saw anyone else on the hill all day, and I’d do it all again in a minute…hopefully in clearer conditions. So, having expelled a few doubts with this one, it’s on to the AE Ridge in August
(would have done the Pinnacle Ridge in Ardgour in July too, had I not been elsewhere, so it shall have to wait).
You big beauty...
Still feeling pretty elated after that.