Stob a'Choire Odhair

945m/3100ft

Stob Ghabhar

1090m/3576ft

Creise

1100m/3609ft

Meall a'Bhuiridh

1108m/3635ft

date climbed

28/09/08

time taken

12 hours

distance

40km

ascent

1950m

OS Map

Landranger 50/41

Weather

Early mixed visibility later in day driving rain, hail and mist

Starting point : Victoria Bridge GR 270 423

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.