Buchaille Etive Mor, April 1st 2007

Myself and "Gunner Roach", went up to Glencoe to see what snow was left.

We had fantastic weather, and could even about spot Crowberry Tower on Curved Ridge as we approached the car park at Altnafeadh, on the A82 just beyond Glen Etive road. GRNN220564.

We set off for Coire na Tulaich, the large obvious coire and headed for the "thin" line of snow, just visible at the top of the coire. After following the burn, the ground gets steeper and when we got to the snow we found it was like concrete, even in stiff boots!

What you can't see from the photo is a small cornice that a couple of guys were trying to kick their way up! We opted for the rock to the left of the gully which turned out to be iced, making it at interesting ascent on what would be easy rock in summer!

Once at the top,we a fine view of the Ben and the CMD Arete.

It was then norteast from the bealach (GR NN216452) to reach the summit of Stob Dearg (red peak) in just under 500 ft from the bealach.

The summit of Stob Dearg (3335 ft) has a great view over Rannoch moor, and to the southwest you should just get a glimpse of the top of Crowberry Tower. After posing for photos, we headed back to the bealach and on to Stob na Doir and Stob Coire Altruim.

Looking along to Stob Coire Altruim and Stob na Broig from Stob na Doir.

The top of Stob na Broig gives you a great view of Glen Etive and Loch Etive.

As we made our way back to Stob Coire Altruim ( and down by way of a very faint track roughly at 208530 ), it was tempting to stray too far over the snow. But as you can see above, some of the cornices were still there even as April started.