We left the good weather in Newcastle as we headed north to Glencoe on Friday night to find a couple of members who had explored some of the Mamores that day in Onich church hall where we were staying.

Due to the high wind forecast for later in the day we made an early start on Saturday parking in Ballachulish and starting off together but then splitting into two groups. Markos took the less technical route up and then beat a timely retreat to the cafe due to the inclement weather.

The rest of us went up onto the Schoolhouse ridge (as shown below)

Above – Further up the Schoolhouse ridge

Below – Views across to the Pap of Glencoe

As we continued up the ridge we entered the cloud and had some soft snow under our feet. As we were approaching the minor summit of Sgorr Bhan the wind had picked up and was blowing hail into our faces. We continued over the summit of Sgorr Dhearg (1024m) the taller of the Beinn a’Bheithir (Mountain of the Thunderbolt) munros. (Shown below)

We then hastily descended west to the bealach and then dropped north into Gleann a’Chaolais where we picked our way through some recently felled forest and had a scenic detour along the river before arriving at the head of the glen where we were collected in the vans by Dom, Laurie and Josh. We then headed back to the hall where we spent the evening relaxing enjoying some well cooked Haggis (apart from those who went to the pub) and also enjoyed Matthews piano playing.

After a restful nights sleep we awoke having lost an hour to the clocks but we greeted with much better weather and headed down the eastern end of the Glencoe valley where we did three different walks.

One group ascended the corbett, Beinn a’Chrulaiste (857m) enjoying beautiful views, rainbows, waterfalls and deer sightings.

Above – Beinn a Chrulaiste summit

Below – Simon and a waterfall

Another group scrambled up the north eastern flank of Buachaille Etive Beag to Stob nan Cabar then walked along the ridge to the two munros, Stob Coire Raineach (925m) and Stob Dubh (958m) before descending into Lairig Gartain and returning to the vans.

Above – Scrambling on Buachaille Etive Beag

Below – Summit of Buachaille Etive Beag

The final group ascended the Buachaille Etive Mor massif via some scrambling on Creag a’Bhancair we then ascended the first munro of the day, Stob Dearg (1022m), for lunch and then continued along the ridge all the way to Stob na Broige (956m) giving beautiful views down Loch Etive, across to Bidean nam Bian and north to the Mamores, Grey Corries and Ben Nevis. We then descended into Lairig Gartain and returned to the vans.

Above – view of Stob na Broige from Stob na Doire on Buachaille Etive Mor with Bidean nam Bian in the background.

Below – Laurie admiring the view

We then returned to Newcastle after a much enjoyable weekend. Many thanks to all who came for making it such a good trip. – Josh