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From the car park a path was taken towards the
Victoria bridge then the track besides the Abhainn Shira followed to the
Glasgow University climbing hut. A stalkers path headed north
into the hills until a burn was crossed when the route headed off up through the heather, twisting and turning as
it went until the summit came into view. Once reached, the peaks climbed
a few days earlier in the Bridge of Orchy and Mamlorn ranges were
visible and the routes taken on these hills replayed in the
memory. After descending to the belach, the Aonach Eagach
ridge (no relation to the Glen Coe ridge) lead upwards to allow a short
pull onto the Stob Ghabhar summit.
The route across to Creise looked complicated on the
map and navigation was not helped by low level cloud that had now build
up. However, it was not as bad as I had feared and I only needed
a couple of GPS position confirmations. After a few ups and downs,
the western side of Glas Choirean was reached and steep and rough
descent to the Belach Fuar-chathaidh completed. This was followed by the ascent of Clach
Leathad. The weather had really deteriorated by now and it became quite
a struggle to find my way along the ridge towards Creise. Markings on
the Landranger map were also not very clear about what actually
constituted the summit of Creise so I ended going down a
considerable way to the final cairned peak on the ridge just to make sure I had
bagged the right one. After retracing my steps a stony rib
offered escape from the ridge towards the belach and then up onto the
summit of Meall a Bhuiridh. After the climb to the summit, the ski
lift tracks were followed all the way down to the ski centre and the
junction with the West Highland Way. The rain had now stopped and
spirits were revived by the remaining snacks as the long walk south on
the West Highland Way started. In the end I really enjoyed the 10 mile
jog back to the car, the last 2 or 3 miles aided by torchlight.
A fine mountain day, challenging with the terrible
weather but very satisfying when completed. |