rpkantharia wrote:I had initially planned to do the scramble
People on here often now seem to describe the buttress route up Stuc a'Chroin as a "scramble", but it's not really. There's proper scrambling to be had if you take to the actual rocks to the left of the usual line (I've not tried this apart from a couple of brief sections, but a neighbour reckons there's an easy line there too although it needs a bit of route-finding). But the standard direct way up is really all just scree-path ledges and little stony grooves. It sort of zigzags up, drifting slightly right of centre. Once you cross the boulderfield at the bottom you angle up rightwards and if you're on the best bit of path (there are various alternatives and less-good options) you soon arrive at what is probably the key point (I wouldn't call it the crux as it's still very easy): a short straight-up shallow groove-gully which sometimes has a bit of seepage, and from the top of here you then head a bit right again. The section above all that is all just steep and slightly exposed walking, then high up you slant back left up a quite definite groove with lots of stony holds for hands and feet and suddenly pop out at the old Falkirk MC memorial cairn from where it's a ten-minute stroll to the actual summit.
There's a bit of hands-on stuff for sure, but it wouldn't qualify as a scramble in any actual book of such things - maybe grade 0.5 rather than grade 1, say. It's still pretty straightforward in the wet (I've been both up and down it in the wet despite being quite timid on proper scrambles), but it would be a different matter in the ice and/or snow, quite serious then.
What's become the usual avoiding path in the gully away over to the right when heading up is something that didn't seem to exist 20 years ago - it's a recent invention, a bit like that curious modern path up the end of Beinn a'Chroin that is both longer and more awkward than the old traditional way. The avoiding gully on Stuc is getting quite bare in places - it needs to be watched in its upper/middle section in descent in dry weather, as there's a gravelly bit that's becoming quite skiddy as more and more people use it. There's also the option (in summer at least) of the other, older, avoiding route round the corner to the left of the buttress - you go sort of flat left from the boulders and soon pick up a path which turns straight uphill and eventually pops out at the dip south of the Falkirk MC bump. This is definitely just a walk in summer conditions but is a steep one - probably about the same angle as the buttress route.
Fine hill, anyway. I like Vorlich (especially the back ridge), but I like Stuc better. Sounds like you had a good day there recently.