I'd noticed that most of the walk reports for the two Aonachs followed the WH route from Glen Nevis, but I've had a lot of fun with Ralph Storer's suggestions in "100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains" so I wanted to try his idea of approaching from the east via Stob an Chul-Choire. I was promised a wild landscape, sensational views and no crowds until the descent via the north slope.

So at 8:30 on Easter Saturday I was parked at the Nevis Range bottom station, the sun was shining, there was a nip in the air and I was ready to go.

The route starts in the back left corner of the carpark (as you face the hill). I walked underneath the gondola and after a short distance was on a vehicle track heading east. The map showed I needed to continue to a T junction and turn left, but as you can see from the GPS track I took a shortcut on a bike track through the wood and joined the vehicle track again as it headed uphill. At the next junction I followed the road round to the left, along the route of the old puggy line.

A short distance beyond the junction, among the trees on the right, I could see one of the adits providing maintenance access to the pipeline which runs under the hills from Loch Treig to the aluminium smelter in Fort William. Alas the gate at the mouth of the adit tunnel was locked - in the past things were a bit slacker and you could walk 100s of yards into the side of the hill, right up to the pipeline.

From here I continued east along the road for a few km until I could turn uphill onto the track leading to the dam and intake where the water of the Allt Choille Rais is diverted into the pipeline. Fortunately the guys who had padlocked the adit hadn't also locked the dam, so I could use it to reach the other side of the burn.

Immediately on the far side of the dam a faint path led up into the birch wood, but it vanished after a few yards and my heart sank as I imagined pathless wanderings among dense trees. But although the trees were dense they didn't last long so I was soon on the open hillside above the wood.

Here the big slog of the day began, at first steep and then eventually relenting, up onto the back of Tom na Sroine and then onwards to Stob Coire an Fhir Dhuibh. The views opened out east to the emptiness of Killiechonate "Forest", with the Grey Corries beyond, and over to the west Aonach Mor still holding a chunk of winter snow.



The slope was easier now, and as I climbed the ridge began to turn west and approach the peak of Stob an Chul-Choire.



As I approached the top two things grabbed my attention. First was the stupendous view south across An Cul Choire to Aonach Beag. That's a seriously big corrie!



And the second thing grabbing my attention was what was to be the biggest challenge of the day: the ascent from the beallach to Aonach Mor plateau.



The descent from Stob an Chul-Choire to the beallach was surprisingly steep and stony and, like the rest of the route, mostly pathless. An Cul Choire loomed bigger and bigger all the while.



And then it was time to start on upwards again. The ascent to the plateau would be no problem in summer but today the rock tower which sits about halfway up was surrounded by a steep field of snow, so it was on with the crampons and scrambling up snow and wet grass any-old how. I've no idea if the rules say you can use crampons & axe on steep wet grass but they certainly worked a treat. About a third of the way up I fancied the rock looked a better possibility so I put away all the spiky stuff and switched to hands and feet. All great fun, but I was fair knackered by the time I got to the top of the rock tower. Fortunately from there it was only a short hop up the last bit and onto the plateau.



And now suddenly when I looked west Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg filled the view.




Carn Mor Dearg is a fine-shaped hill, its long bulk buttressed by massive ridges, but as always it was totally dominated by the Ben with the north face looking alpine in a covering of snow.

Looking further I could see out to the Cuillin, north to Kintail and south-east to something which I reckoned might be Schiehallion.

Now I had a tricky choice. I could pop over to Aonach Beag, return to Aonach Mor, then descend the north slope all the way back to the car, probably finishing sometime between 6 and 7. Or I could make a break for the gondola, catch the last one at 4, and be back at the car for 4:15.

I'd had a tiring time the last couple of months and didn't feel up to a monster 10-hour day, so with a heavy heart I turned my back on Aonach Beag and headed for home.

The route down the west side of the ski slopes was easy going, but it's pretty tedious and the ski development doesn't improve the scenery so I felt no shame at taking the easy route off the hill asap. And so less than 2 hours after being on the summit I was back at the car and off home for a gallon of tea. That felt pretty good

A couple of tips about descending the north slope:
There doesn't seem to be any ticket-checking at the gondola top station; I guess they rely on getting everyone on the way up
If the gondola is running but your conscience won't stand it you're in a bit of a pickle because all the paths off the hill are full of insane mountain bikers and you'd be diving into the ditch every other minute to avoid getting flattened.