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Always fancied this route, but I was put off by the apparently tricky scrambling and route finding. Basscadet's recent report made it sound doable - and included a GPX file - so I loaded it onto the GPS and headed up Glen Coe on a hot Friday. What could possibly go wrong?
Wasn't sure where to park but there was a layby just after the Glen Etive road so I just went for that. There's a parking area further along the A82 (at Jacksonville) with a path leading to the water slab so that would have been better. Classic/boring view:
Approaching from this direction, you get a better look at the route. The face has diagonal ridges from top left to bottom right. Following the summit line down to the right leads to North Buttress. Crowberry Ridge is to the left of this (directly below the summit), and Rannoch Wall is the left hand side of this ridge. Curved Ridge is on the left of Rannoch Wall. The water slab is at the bottom here, there's a path leading straight to it from this direction so it's unmissable.
Path to the waterslab, the hill looks a bit different from this angle: North Buttress on the right, then Crowberry, then Curved Ridge.
Steep scree path leads up on the left of the slab, further up there's a group of trees on a rock and the path goes diagonally up to the right in front of this.
Then up a rocky bit:
When you get further up, turn left & you can see Curved Ridge on the left & Crowberry on the right. I checked the GPS here to make sure I was in the right place, then put it back in a side webbing pocket on my pack thinking 'that doesn't look too secure, must find a better pocket later'.
Started scrambling up the ridge (which as all fine) then double checked the GPS but it had disappeared
. So there was a down scramble to the last place I'd checked it but couldn't find it. Another walker appeared but he hadn't seen it either. We swapped stories of gloves lost on the hills, he'd done the ridge & Crowberry Tower before so we continued on together. Onwards:
Scramble, then path:
Top of the crux, good hand/footholds so no probs:
Crowberry Tower:
Climbers coming up North Buttress, they were training for the Matterhorn.
There's a cairn at the top of Curved Ridge with a steep scree path leading up to the left. Or you can turn right and go round the back of Crowberry Tower where paths lead to the tower or Stob Dearg. The walker I met had climbed the tower from the front though so we did this, there's a path that goes straight round then leads up - bit of scrambling but nothing tricky. On top of the tower looking down:
At the back of the tower there's a path that leads to the summit, climber on it here:
Short down scramble to get from the tower to the summit path:
Then a path:
Crowberry Tower from the way up Stob Dearg:
Back down via the corrie:
Went back round and did the start of Curved Ridge again to look for the GPS but no luck. Put lost notices here & on UKC and bid on one on ebay on Saturday but lost the auction. Got an email from someone on UKC this morning who found it at the bottom of Rannoch Wall yesterday
.