A day in the life of hillwalkers on. Buachaille Etive Mor Glen Coe

A day in the life of  hillwalkers on.

Buachaille Etive Mor

Glen Coe

big herdsman of Etive

Sadly

Christopher Walker, 29, from Keswick and Robert Pritchard, 37, from New Malden in Surrey.

Were accidentally killed in an avalanche on the north east ridge descent, Wednesday 24th February 2010 here.

  Our trip here took place on 15/5/2010 and we had heard about the fatalities earlier in the year. I don't go walking much in the winter and would be very wary of walking in the spring time if there was a thaw. I have walked in the snow in the mountains on several occasions but it's hard work tramping through it and I would prefer to avoided it if at all possible.

The day out.

12.01am :-  Brian and me sleeping at our own houses , Graham up and about.

4.15am:- Got up and nipped upstairs to put on the boiled eggs to boil. Back downstairs for a shave and a shower.

4.30am:- Got the food for the day packed up and all the rest of the kit ready.

4.45am:- Quick cup of tea and some flakes.

5.00am:- Brian and Graham came round and picked me up in Brian's car.

7.00am:- Have I got a cup? In past the wee shop at Murthly and begged a few polystyrene cups.

7.30am:- Introduced Brian and Graham to Luncarty just off the A9.

Brian "so this is where Luncarty is, so and so that worked at the school came from here"

Through Perth and onto the A85 heading for Creiff.

8.45am-ish:- Meet Mike Graham's brother at The Green Wellie Cafe Tyndrum as he lives down south.

8.46am:- Of course we had to try out the bacon rolls, a wee bit pricey here if I remember right it was about £4.75 for a roll and a tea. When in Rome do as the Romans did as they say.

9.15am-ish:- Graham left with Mike in his car and I went with Brian following Mike across Rannoch Moor heading for Glencoe.

9.35am:- We stopped on the moor to get a few pictures as seen below.

Glen Etive  and Glen Coe.

    Now around here a cunning plan was hatched as we had two cars with us. We would drop Mike's car off in Glen Etive beside a stone bridge where we thought we would descend and we all went round in Brian's car to Glen Coe. This meant we would not have to walk all the way back to Glen Coe. Great laid plans of "Mike and men" - I will explain near the end of this story.

9.45am:- Mike and Graham with Graham indicating how many Munros for the day ( if you can believe that).

10.05am:- At the track down to the car park in Glen Coe, it was pretty rough so Graham, Mike and myself jumped out of Brian's car so it did not ground and walked down to the car park. Got kitted up and set off for Stob Dearg via Coire na Tulaich.

    In the older books Buachaille Etive Mor only had one Munro on it Stob Dearg, Stob na Brogie was added later. Brian had climbed Stob Dearg  many years earlier but had returned as he had not gone along to Stob na Brogie. The car park is off the A82 just past Altnafeadh on the south side of the road. After you leave the car park the path heads south past Lagangarbh.

10.20am:- Lagangarbh. Looking up Lairig Gartian with Buachaile Etive Beag on the right.

It's a good manmade path leading to Coire na Tulaich.

Walk Info:-

Steepness factor on this walk.

Especially down into Glen Etive from the ridge on the wet grass.

Scare factor :- 4 out of 6

Sore foot factor:- 4 out of 6

Walking on rocks most of the day.

We followed the path along past Lagangarbh heading to Coire na Tulaich

10.21am:- Graham, Brian and Mike kitted up and on the path heading up.

   It was a nice sunny day when we started. It's all up hill from here through  Coire na Tulaich.

I had filled my pack to brimming with stove kettle and load of food to get used to the weight for longer walks or at least that was the plan. (Why?) I would humph all that extra weight up and over a really big mountain I don't know.

10.36am:- Graham sizing up where we were heading.  Its a steady incline for a bit till you  get to the big rocks at the bottom of Coire na Tulaich , that's where the real up starts rocks all the way to the top as well.

10.51am:- Coire na Tulaich from around 460m

We made our way up - me last as usual with my heavy pack slowing me down, not really as I am always slower than the others. Gets very rocky about 1/2 way up and there are a few sort of paths you can follow.

Looking back down to the road.

About 1/2 way up here nice day now. It was not that hard of a climb nice steady pace through the rocks stopping to take in the views every now and again.

11.18am:- Graham and Mike taking in the view or going "S**t I have still to climb all those hill over there" lol.

Brian taking in the view and going. "Can't wait to climb them hills over there".

Got pretty steep after here and very rocky too. There were quite a few other walkers ahead of us and we could see them picking out the path as they went.

11.35am:- 759m up Brian leads the way ahead as normal with Mike and Graham behind and the old dinosaur last again as usual. And it gets steeper from here, great nothing else for it but to plod on up.

   We had caught up with the climbers ahead of us as we approached the big cliff  in the photo.

Grahams photo.

Just before the top we stopped for a bite to eat in the shelter. Perched on narrow ledges where if you leaned forward you got the feeling that you were about to go for a tumble back down. I think I sat pretty still there.

Mike and me

11.45am-ish:- Mike and me sitting on the edge so to speak.

   Fed and watered headed up the last steep gully to the ridge and into the wind on the ridge.

11.54am:- Still a bit of snow around in the gullies here.

You still have a bit to go to the summit of Stob Dearg from here it's about 700 m left at the top or east.

The landscape changes to the red rocks (Dearg) or I think I called it the planet Mars in one of my photos on Flicker.

12.37:- space time pm Take on the planet Mars oh no its Stob Dearg.

The other three were well ahead by this time. That sticking up rock just to the left of centre is the three of them. Over the top is a narrow-ish ridge to the summit not far from here.

There were a few others about so we got our picture taken all together sitting on the summit.

12.46pm:- Graham, Mike, Brian and me on top of Stob Dearg. Brian later got a rollicking from his Mrs for not having a hat on up here in the cold wind. Munro No 97 for me. After the usual texting, twittering and photo taking we set off  west back the way we had come heading for the second Munro of the day Stob na Broige. About 3.25km away with a few ups and downs on the way some quite big. A few snow showers around now blowing through.

12.55pm:_ The way back and on to Munro No2

First down to the  902 m spot height first, then Stob na Dorie 1011 and then Stob Coire Altruim 941 and finally the Munro Stob na Broige 956 it's a bit weird that the promoted Munro is lower that Stob na Dorie.  S.M.C must have decided about it.

Brian on Twitter as usual with a view over  Rannoch Moore - it's not just young kids that Twitter, big kids Twitter too.

Off we went strung out a bit as Brian and Mike are a bit like Whippets sometimes, me last as usual a bit of a dinosaur so not that fast. Our first challenge Stob na Dorie. We had dropped down to 869m and had to get back up to 1011m oh the fun. The only way is up.

Stob na Dorie later to be renamed tell you in a while why.

 Puffing and panting my way up trying to keep up with the others with my super heavy pack.

1.43pm:- 910m coming up to the summit of Stob na Dorie.

1.52pm:- When we got up on top of here the snow started to blow in from the west so we ducked down on the east side into a sheltered rocky bit with a path descending, not for the squeamish that path. I got myself wedged into a nice bit and got out the stove and a can of Baxters Scotch broth yum yum and it would be nice and hot too. Quite cold now with the snow.

Soon heated up the soup took the pan off the stove this would be my pan that uses a handle that clips on and is shite.

As I brought the pan round from behind me to put the soup into my bowl the F**** handle let go and my lovely hot soup and pan went down with some of the soup going over my leggings and the rest hit the ground. The pan carried on out of sight down the rocks. I will tell you I was a tad upset about this happing to my lovely warm soup. Just about crying now I got some more food out of the rucksack, a pasta thing in a Tupperware box it was not lovely and I did not eat much of it. Still the coffee was hot. Brian had gone down and retrieved my pan for me and to this day it still has the dent in it where it hit the rocks.

 Vango 3 pan set with the crud handle which has let me drop the pan many times.

2.41pm:- 817m Graham descending Stob na Doire ( Soup Hill) weather not so good now.

2.49pm:- Heading up Stob Coire Altruim got our first view of Loch Etive to the south at around 846m up.

Loch Etive in the distance.

3.01:- Got to the top of Stob Coire Altruim  and had our last Munro in sight. Unfortunately we would have to climb to the top of  Stob na Broige the Munro and then come back to here to descend into Glen Etive.

3.07pm:- On top of Stob Coire Altruim, Brian and Graham with Soup Hill and the ridge we had just come along behind them. Off we went across the bealach to our second Munro of the day Stob na Broige by the time we got there the weather had closed in and it was light snow at the top. Brian had his hat on now, won't get another doing from his Mrs.

Graham's photo

3.30pm:- Me on the top of Stob na Broige.

Messed about a bit at the top taking photos, snacking etc., and headed back down to Stob Coire Altruim back the way we had come over the top and onto the bealach starting our descent into Glen Etive.

4.00pm-ish:- Descending into Glen Etive.

    Graham's photo

Start point to the left of the 2 in photo for our descent to Glen Etive with Stob Coire Altruim and Stob na Broige in the distance. 2 Km down to the road of steep wet grass. Brian and Mike off like 2 whippets again followed by Graham and me last.

This is not a pleasant descent as you're constantly watching your feet to see if they are going to take off, but the walking poles help.

4.30pm:- About 1/2 way down I managed to get my feet caught up in the poles and took a header into the hillside. It was the steep rocky gully that I was heading for that kind of worried me however I managed to recover and Graham was just ahead of me at this time and he stopped to see if I was all right. "Yep" apart from the blood coming out of my forehead I was fine, it was just a scratch but I took it canny from here down.

  4.46pm:- Brian was down onto the road and so far ahead I had to use 15 times zoom on my camera to
  take the next shot as I was still at 416m - told you he's like a whippet!

Graham and myself walked the rest of the way down together. Getting down to the road around 5 pm.

   Now the fun started. Graham and I had seen this little car coming along the glen as we descended going very slow, Brian and Mike were down by this time. When we got to the bottom there was just Mike there and no Brian - strange. Now do you remember best laid plans of Mike and men? Mike had lost his key to his car, bummer as it was quite a few miles back to Brian's car. Can't quite remember what Graham said about his dear brother at this point but I'll just leave that up to your imagination. Brian had managed to get a lift from the slow car which turned out to be a German lady who was on holiday. She drove about 20 mph along the glen a bit frustrating for Brian as he tends to go as close to the speed limit as he can. (Space for comment from Graham here.) lol.

So we had a play about trying to open Mike's car but we had no luck, nothing for it but to take some photos and wait for Brian to come back.

  

 Our descent route down the side of the gully up from the green tree middle of photo.

Glen Etive looking south from the stone bridge.

About 1/2 an hour later Brian came back with his car having persuaded the German lady to run him all the way to his car as she was going to drop him off at the end of Glen Etive and he would have had a 3km walk back to his car. Into Brian's boot where Mike found his other jacket and to his relief his car keys were in it. Would have been fun trying to get the RAC here as there's no phone signal for miles. Got the kit packed away into Brian's car and Brian, Graham and myself set off for home via Fort William. Mike headed home across Rannoch Moor going back down south.

7.00pm:- We had reached the Dam at the end of Loch Laggan on the A86 and stopped for a break.

Next stop 48km along the A86 and very importantly the chip shop at Kingussie now called the Happy Haggis

   Must have got there around  8 pm.

8.30pm-ish:- our last and most important stop The Boat Inn at Boat of Garten. "The pub"

   Brian's favourite haunt on any trip.

Brians photo, Brian in the Boat.

Graham and myself in the Boat me with a nice pint of Guinness.

Brians photo

After a 1/2 hour stop here we set off home over the Lecht getting home around 10pm.

11.59pm:- Brian and me sleeping at our own houses, Graham still up I should think.

A grand day out in Glen Coe.

The end -  thankfully.

P.S. All times are approximate. feel free to leave comments.

   For the rest of my photos go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/dino60/sets/72157623949565319/
For Grahams photos go to        http://www.flickr.com/photos/chimpaction/sets/72157625207127178/
For Brians photos  go to       http://www.flickr.com/photos/44907198@N00/sets/72157624102768630/