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My wife has had her eye on Buachaille Etive Beag for some time, but had reservations about the seemingly narrow ridge you have to walk along to do both summits. The perfect solution (or so my wife told me) was for me to go on a solo hike to test it out. Then, assuming no great hazards were encountered, I'd do the walk a second time with my other half and our two intrepid Beagles.
Being a keen photographer I had no interest in doing the walk during "normal" walking hours, so I set my heart on being on the summit of the nearest peak, Stob Coire Raineach, in time for sunrise. After reading other walkers' reports, I calculated that I'd need to start the walk at or before 3am (!!!) to be sure of being on the summit with my camera all set up by 4:40am (sunrise). In the end, I was heading out of the car park and up the trail at 2.45am. I was armed with a head torch and and an extremely powerful hand torch, but didn't need either of them; even at this very delicate time of the morning there was ample light to follow the path.
The walk to the "bealach" started off gently, but the higher I got the steeper it got, and as I was trudging up the rocky steps I was strongly reminded of The Cobbler, which has a similarly quad-killing segment. At about 45 minutes into the walk I saw a very bright light up ahead of me. I figured it was torchlight from some intrepid campers up on the bealach. "Blimey that's brave" I thought, but a few steps later and I recognized this ball of light for what it really was: the moon! Minutes later I arrived at the little cairn on the col.
IMG_2367 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
In theory I now had enough time left to make it to the farthest peak - Stob Dubh - before sunrise, but I decided to stick with my original plan of going for SCR first, leaving me plenty of time to scout out the more photographic locations.
Heading left, I found the climb up to the summit to be far easier going than the walk up to the bealach. It took me barely more than twenty minutes, but I was soaked in sweat from the effort and I started feeling the windchill almost immediately. Fortunately experience has taught me always to pack a spare dry thermal top. No matter how much you pay for these thermal things, the moment you get them wet and stop walking they suck the heat right out of you!
Much warmer after my change of top, I took the obligatory shot of the summit cairn..
Summit of Stob Coire Raineach on Buachaille Etive Beag, pre-sunrise [IMG_2382] by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
However, to my eyes the best views were to be had further on and lower down from the summit.
The minutes left till sunrise passed quickly and before long the sun was starting to poke its head up over the horizon:
The higher the sun rose, the better the view became.
This was easily the most beautiful mountain-top sunrise I've ever witnessed; it took no small amount of effort to turn my back on it and return to the bealach.
On the way up, the path to the summit of SCR is unmistakable, but on the way back down it's surprisingly easy to miss it and end up on a winding scree slope. Consequently my descent to the bealach was faster and more exciting than it should have been. As they say on Top Gear, "a bit of poo came out"
Looking back to Stob Coire Raineach from the bealach [IMG_2517] by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
Soiled underpants notwithstanding, I was still in good shape for the walk to the farther summit, Stob Dubh. This starts by winding up what looks like a prohibitively steep hill but it's nowhere near as bad as it appears. Keep plugging away and you're soon at the top! From there, it's a pleasant undulating stroll to the second summit. I'm not particularly brave when it comes to heights, but I found nothing scary about the walk along the ridge. It's wider than it looks on approach, and mostly rolls away gently from the path rather than presenting you with a sudden drop.
Including photography breaks I took a little over an hour to reach the summit cairn of Stob Dubh, but once again I found it to be less photogenic than a second cairn further on but lower in height. The wind was picking up speed now and it was chilly enough to make my nose run, even in full sun. I reached for a hanky and discovered I had half a Tesco dog biscuit knocking around in one of my pockets. I symbolically placed this on the second cairn, ready and waiting to be grabbed by one of my ever-hungry Beagles the next day.
IMG_2575 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
IMG_2610-2612_Blended by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
IMG_2616-2617_Pamo by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
On the return journey some clouds blew over and there was even a short-lived attempt at rain, but it made for some pretty dramatic views back towards the true summit and beyond that, the ridge and SCR.
IMG_2670 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
IMG_2676 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
That concluded my first trip up Buachaille Etive Beag, but of course at 3am the next morning I was at it again, this time accompanied by my wife Susan and our two hounds. My legs weren't nearly as fresh as they had been the previous day, but assisted by Beagle pulling power I still made it up to SBC comfortably before sunrise. This time around the sun was obscured by cloud, but it was still very beautiful.
IMG_2738_39_40_fused by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
Susan's even less keen on heights than me, but she had no trouble with the ridge, even daring to walk it with two crazy Beagles tied to her belt!
IMG_2764 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
IMG_2776 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
IMG_2803 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
IMG_2821 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
On reaching Stob Dubh our Beagles searched high and low for the biccie I'd told them about, and during the course of this search the cairn itself took a little, er, damage. Fortunately Susan was able to effect repairs..
IMG_2849 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
IMG_2825 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
Sadly the biccie was nowhere to be found, but our two were still willing to pose for the summit photo, albeit with a little coercion!
IMG_2828 by
GammyKnee, on Flickr
The next morning I didn't get up until 11am and was walking around like Robocop for the rest of the day
