Stob Dearg – Stob na Broige – Stob Dubh – Stob Coire Raineach

16 miles, 1800m ascent, 11 hours

Looking up from the hut it was obvious that the Buachaille was plastered in fresh snow. Mindful of Coire na Tulaich’s reputation as an avalanche trap, we took the first opportunity to climb the ridge on it’s right. We passed a classic icicle fringe in deep powder snow overlying neve beneath, to emerge in brilliant sunlight to the upper ridge. A pattern of vigorous snow showers and sunny spells continued from then on throughout the day, with frequent curtains of spindrift assailing us on our high mountain perch. This was a vibrant mountaineering day of some length, where the only other party seemed to descend before the second Munro leaving us to continue alone. Ben seemed up for the traverse of the Buachaille Etive Beag, so after making a fine snowman, we descended all the way to the Lairig and it was almost 8pm before we returned to the hut, elated to have shared such an exhilarating winter’s day together.

Photos