Etive Mor

Munro: Buachaille Etive Mor


Stob Dearg 1022m / 3353ft

Stob na Broige 956m / 3136ft



OS Map: 41



I had realised at around 750m up Stob Dearg that I was stuck. To escape the field of loose rocks I had diverted my walk and now found myself trying to climb over rocks in a V shaped channel which has been cut away over the years by a small stream which was also getting my feet wet. I took a breather and looked down the gully to find half a dozen people stopped a couple of hundred metres below. I tried once more to struggle over the loose and wet rocks but it was no good. As I looked down once more the numbers of the people below had increased to about ten. By the time I had retreated slightly to scramble up some big rocks to my right my audience had numbered around fourteen, all staring intently at my progress, or lack of it. I thought that either they were getting some amusement out of the situation I was in or, my paranoia kicked in as I thought that I might be going the wrong way, and my audience was wondering what the hell I was doing. However, once on the big rocks I made it to the top of the gully fairly easily and I was able to take in the ridge on to Stob Dearg. Etive Mor is a well known and popular mountain as the guided tour of people now negotiating the scree field below me would testify too. It has all the looks of a classic mountain, a cone shaped lump rising out of Glencoe full of crags and rocks, the thing looks impossible to climb, at least on first impressions. The key to the Munro comes from climbing up through the gully, Coire na Tulaich. Back tot eh top of the gully. The track up to the summit of Stob Dearg was straight forward even though it was fairly misty. I kept vigilant though as once wrongly placed foot and you could be taking tumble off a cliff or sliding down some loose rocks to your death. From the summit of Stob Dearg I descended to the top of the gully again before following the four and a half mile ridge walk which took my up then down and back up and then finally along to Stob na Broige, the second Munro on Etive Mor.

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