This is a route I had been eyeing up for a wee while. Reading the guide book, consulting the map and checking the weather each friday night becoming slightly obsessive in the process
Friday comes around and I do the whole thing again hoping that the forecast would be in my favour which it definetly wasn't!!
I packed my bag anyway and set the alarm for the morning. With wind expected to be 40mph from the northwest and gusts to reach 65mph bringing rain with it meant it wasn't ideal but the difficult sections wouldn't be directly in the wind for too long I hoped
I had my waterproofs on for a total of 6h 40m due to the windchill it was bloody freezing up there!!! It's not all bad though the ticket machine on the bus was broken meaning I got a free ride down to the start point
From the road follow the path for the normal route upto the waterfall before leaving the main track 100m beyond heading NW to gain the rocky ridge of Sgurr nan Each
The east west traverse of the Sgurr nan Each ridge is straight forward with easy scrambling and simple route finding, provided you stick to the crest you won't go wrong. There is one short section involving the down climb of a cracked slab (around grade 2) which can be avoided if you drop down to the south 3-4 meters.
At Bealach Clach Glas you start to get an idea of what the main meat of the route will be like, if you don't fancy the whole thing you can drop down into Choire a'Caise using a stone chute. This is the last escape point before "the putting green". I should point out that the Corbet Garbh-bheinn isn't too far away to add on, I did it last time I was out so missed it out on this walk.
You can appreciate the comparison to the Matterhorn when you see it from the north!
The usual route to ascend Clach Glas is by the north ridge graded moderate*** I wouldn't recomend it to a walker and I think most scramblers would be advised to take a rope and some protection. It's well worth the effort though the veiw from the top were excellent
atleast when the clag parted to give me some views Eventually I got a view of Blah Bheinn so grabbed a quick picture before pressing on
The next section of the route involves the descent of "the imposter" a steep slab with a sheer face on the south west side forming a sharp arete. The down climbing was straightforward with nothing presenting a real challange, it's definitely not the place to slip though!
I had read that the lightning strike at the bottom had made the rock quite loose in places but I didn't think this was an issue. Once at the putting green the best route is to climb the 18M chimney graded difficult which leads onto the east flank joining the normal route for the summit. The short climb is the hardest part of the entire traverse with the heavily polished start being the crux.
After poping across to the south top it was straight down the normal route back to the road which took no time at all. Hopefully I'll be able to convince someone to come along next time come back and do this again as it's a fantastic day out!
