Glen Coe in June

After being seduced/persuaded/conned into climbing Ben Nevis by something other than the tourist route, eight of us braved the Jubilee bank holiday traffic and made it up to Fort William. Some of us left in daylight, drove through the night on a diet of coffee and Pro Plus washed down with Red Bull and arrived in Glen Coe to pitch tents in the light and midges at 3:20 am. Now the Scots aren’t renown for their generosity, but give ‘em their do, we didn’t get charged for half a night’s camping.

Sometime on Friday, me, Rob and Ray set out for an easy climb. I certainly didn’t feel like a hard climb after the drive up, and Ray’s never climbed before, so we went for Curved Ridge on Buchaille Etive Mor, Alpine style as a rope of three. The rock wass wet and the multi-multi starred Agag’s Groove on Ranaoch Wall wass dripping, evidently there wasn't going to be queues on that one this weekend. Curved Ridge is easy enough, but in an outstanding display of incompetence, half way up I manage to go off route and lead us up a choss filled gully at the side of the ridge. Anyway, with only a minor dampening from the weather Gods, we get up to the top and admire the views. Off in the distance the Etive Slabs were glistening in the wet. Both I , and especially Rob, want to have a go at them, but given the easiest route is VS I had doubt’s due to the quantity of water about. We walk down Coire na Tulaich which has got to go as one of the worst routes in the country, it’s only redeeming feature is that the sheer quantity of loose rock allows a scree run. Then its off to the Kingshouse for an excellent plate of haggis.

Saturday dawns and Tim’s, Steve’s and Laurence’s tents have appeared overnight. They emerge somewhat groggily after a long overnight drive. The weather’s good so Me, Laurence, Rob and Steve set off for some climbing high up on the North Face of Gearr Anaoch. Ray and Tim (W) go for the Anaoch Eagach ridge, the finest scramble on the UK mainland. The North Face of Gearr Anaoch is the middle of the Three Sisters and stands majestically overlooking Glen Coe. The climbs are high up and very steep, the crag really looks intimidating from below. Off we go on the long walk in. We get to the base and in another outstanding display of incompetence, I find I’ve left the guide book in the car. Never mind, we picking out the line of the route from the car park and its obvious. Laurence sets off up a very loose, wet, slimy scramble to the start of the route. I’m obliged to follow despite it being really dangerous and not down-climbable as I’ve got the ropes. Suffice to say she’s crazy and I’ve never been so scared before. The climb, despite having stars, has evidently not been climbed in ages. Its dripping wet and covered in slime and vegetation. I was fully prepared to give it a go in the wet, but given its stared status I expected clean rock, not this mess. We ab off a sapling. At the bottom of the crag we walk round to see what Rob and Steve are up to. There’s a waterfall coming down the middle climbs but no sign of Steve or Rob. It turns out they went around to the furthest climb but backed off on the rather dangerous scramble up the ramp to the start. Simon, Gearr Anaoch
Laurence, Gearr Anaoch from the A82
Meanwhile, we’ve gone down and set up a top rope on some dry rock on the NE face. Rob and Steve then come over and join us. Laurence climbing some dry rock
Laurence, Glen Coe The headwall above looks climbable and we decide to have a go at it. I’ve been belaying, Rob’s been sorting his gear, he’s ready, I’m not. His lead. On sight, no guide book. In my book that’s as good as a new route. When we get down we consult the (definitive, not selective) guide book and find that Rob’s route goes slap bang in between two other routes. WELL DONE MATE, A NEW ROUTE!! “Two metres short”, (S), so called because its 52m long and was climbed in a single pitch on 50 m ropes – Rob used slings to lengthen the ropes in case you’re wondering. A letter will be on its way to the secretary of the Scottish Mountaineering Club.
Tim (C) and Andrea arrive on Saturday evening and we all set off to the Clachaig for the bands and the beer festival. The beer festival is a bit of a misnomer as they normally have a dozen real ales on anyway. Tonight’s band, Wolftrain, are excellent. R&B, the place is really rocking all night long.
Sunday does not look good for anything, let alone Tower Ridge. We go to Safeway’s for a cheap breakfast and watch a p*** poor England performance. The Jocks jump up and cheer when Sweden equalise. By early afternoon the rain’s stopped so we set off for a walk up Meall Mor at the back of the campsite. It looks really pretty, almost alpine. I lead the way and we cut through the woods at the bottom, then have to climb an eight foot deer fence. Up we go. It looked easy from the bottom but halfway up we can’t believe the angle at which mud and grass can adhere to a mountain side. Eventually we get to the top and have a break in deteriorating weather. It chucks it down on the descent. Back at the campsite there’s a cock up. I’m going round telling everyone we’re going to the Nether Lochaber Hotel for dinner when I find out that Tim (C) and Ray have set off back up again in the pouring rain to look for Steve. Only problem was, he’s in the campsite, not stuck out on the hillside. Fortunately Tim’s got his phone with him so we don’t have to leg it after them to tell them to abandon the “rescue” attempt. Fence climbing
Great food in the Nether Lochaber Hotel (next to the Corran Ferry) then back to the Clachaig for more beer and music. Tonight it’s traditional Scottish folk music from Restless Natives, which to my untrained ear sounds like traditional Irish. The place might have been rocking the night before, but tonight is even better with folks dancing on the chairs (the roof’s too low to dance on the tables!). Who gives a stuff about 500 mile drives, rain and midges, this is brilliant. Its worth the drive up just for the craich.

Tim's tent, en-suite pond and midge protection

 Campsite Monday and Tower Ridge is on the menu, but yet again the weather forecast is poor. It’ll be a long long day so we’ll need to leave by 8 a.m. 07:00 and its ****ing down. I don’t want to go out in this but am prepared to if the others want to do the route. I hope they don’t. Rob’s alarm clock goes off so I force myself out of bed and dash to the shower block, then quietly get a brew on and hide in the car. Fortunately, everyone else sees sense and stay in bed. We head in to Fort William for a leisurely breakfast. After breakfast the weather has improved but prior to heading for the hills we indulge in a spot of eco-friendly tourism, i.e. we support the local economy by means of gear shopping. A new pair of walking boots for me and a Paramo jacket for Rob.
Myself, Rob, Ray and Laurence head up towards the Lost Valley to have a go at climbing on Sentry Slabs, two days ago there were wet and dry zebra stripes down them, so there’s a good chance they’ll be climbable. Both Tims, Andrea and Steve head off for a walk up to the Pap of Glen Coe. The walk up to the Lost Valley is not that long and very pretty, much of it following a well made path through the woods alongside a ravine. When we get to the slabs the picture is not that good. The first climb, a VS is described as “climb the clean pink line between two watermarks.” The reason the middle bit is clean is because there’s a waterfall flowing down it that scours the rock. The other climbs are in no better state, on close inspection, the dry looking rock is in fact just less wet than the wet looking rock. No climbing here. Instead, Rob gets a brew going in his fancy new titanium billycan and then we all head up the last hundred yards into the Lost Valley. This is where the MacDonalds used to hide their cattle (and anyone else’s!) when the clans were on the warpath. From Glen Coe its invisible and although you can tell there’s a valley up there, no one would ever suspect its suitable for cattle. When you get up to it there’s a large flat area the size of a football pitch, then a ravine heading off to the headwalls of the Lost Valley Buttress. Its well worth a visit. On the way down we stop off at a plunge pool and have a swim. A dunking would be a more accurate description as the water was so cold nobody stayed in for more than a few seconds. Just a little seepage - Sentry Slabs, Lost Valley

Come on in, the waters' lovely. Rob

Looks cold to me, Laurence
The sun was still shining and the hour was not late so we headed off to check out a single pitch crag we’d seen the day before on The Buckle. Its only 15 minutes from the car park, on the left as you head up Coire na Tulaich. I set up a top rope as it’s a bit thin for leading and we then had an hour or so’s enjoyable climbing, although that said, we got bitten to death by the midges as we were packing up. Then it was off to the Kingshouse for food. The Chilli Salmon was really excellent, I reproduced it when I got home, here’s the recipe.
One salmon fillet per person. Skin it or leave the skin on depending on personal preference. Liberally coat the salmon in chilli powder and leave to infuse for however long you’ve got. Pan fry the salmon, not too much though, it ought to be a crime to overcook fish. The time taken will depend on how thick the salmon is, but about 3-4 minutes per side. Once the first side is done, and that’s the side that will be facing down on the plate when you serve it, turn it over and spoon mango chutney onto the top (cooked) side. Continue cooking until almost done. Slide the pan under a hot grill for a couple of seconds to warm through and slightly caramelise the mango chutney. Voila!, chilli salmon. Serve with a mixture of wild and basmati rice and some salad, but go for a light salad dressing.
Despite the weather and the midges I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I certainly did, despite not getting to do Tower Ridge. It was the craich in the Clachaig that really made the weekend, it was worth a 1000 mile round trip just for that, and as for the beer, who says the Scots can’t brew beer. The An Teallach was superb, unfortunately it ran out far too quickly! Plenty of people were enjoying the Sheep Shagger, but I didn’t try that one so I can’t comment. The Kelpie was good too, its a seaweed beer from Orkney. As for the others, well the memory fades, I know I was drinking them and they were good but I can’t for the life of me remember what they were.
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