…is what Irvine Butterfield said about Beinn Bhuidhe in his classic book on the Munros. That's probably why we left it until our 8th-from-last Munro, I'd even thought about saving it for a bad day's quick hit. But the forecast for last weekend was good so we decided to combine it with some climbing on the Cobbler.
And what a magnificent day it was! Cold and sunny with little wind, and hardly another soul to be seen – we met a couple of other parties at the Loch Fyne car park, both going to cycle up the glen for a quick there-and-back ascent of the hill. But we fancied making the most of the weather by staying up high for as long as possible, so we ascended steeply up the hillside to Clachan Hill at 658m.
A long flat ridge over Beinn Chas (680m) was slow going, as the hard nevé alternated with a breakable crust and soft powder underneath, but the views made up for it – the Arrochar Alps to the south east, Crianlarich hills to the north east, Ben Lui and Ben Oss to the north, and the unmistakable Ben Cruachan in the north west. And all the while the long summit ridge of Beinn Bhuidhe looking Alpine in the spring snow.
The avalanche forecast was for considerable risk on south through east aspects, which of course was the direction we were approaching from. If all else failed we'd be able to traverse a few km to the foot of the west ridge. But although there were plenty of loaded snow slopes guarded by big cornices, we found a route up a steep grassy spur followed by a short traverse to gain the east ridge just a few hundred metres from the summit. Here we found the footprints from the other walkers, and could see them a long way below us as they headed back to the valley. Other than this we saw nobody all day, nor any footprints in the snow.
From the summit we descended to the col where the normal approach comes up. Rather than descend immediately we decided to go up the other side to the unnamed NE top, before descending its SE ridge to pick up the normal route. We were expecting a steep pathless descent to the valley and a long walk down the glen, but there have been a lot of new tracks bulldozed up this side of the hill recently, with copious use of dynamite by the look of it. Much as I hate this sort of thing, at least it was made slightly less of an eyesore by the covering of snow, and it had the advantage of taking us on a mostly-gentle downhill across the flanks of Newton Hill and back to the valley just a few km from the car.
Far from being as uninspiring as we'd expected, this turned out to be one of the best hill days we've had in Scotland. Presumably Butterfield never visited in winter!
After a chilly night in the tent (about -6C when we got up on Sunday), we headed for the Cobbler – Carmen's first ascent, and my first in winter. The weather was if anything better than the day before – not a breath of wind, and not a single cloud in the sky.
Many more people around today, unsurprisingly, but still not as many as you'd find on a wet and windy November day in the Lake District! And once we left the main track to contour to Chockstone Gully (grade II) we were on our own again.
We moved together up the first long pitch, Carmen going first and placing gear before belaying in a cave under the eponymous chockstone. I led from there to the top, avoiding the squeeze exit option by the surprisingly heavily iced slabs on the right – I even managed to place the token ice screw I'd brought "just in case".
From the top of here it was a short walk to the foot of Great Gully (also II). We moved together again up here, but with the novel variation that I had all the gear while Carmen went first. Oops. Topping out it started to get busy again, with worrying numbers of people slithering about above big cliffs without crampons or axes, but nobody fell off and at least they weren't muppet enough to be roped together!
Across at the main summit, almost everyone restricted themselves to the easy top opposite the true summit, accessed by a short, easy, but very exposed scramble (grade II in winter). Since we had climbing kit with us, we of course went to the top, a long spiral through the window, along a ledge, and back up to finish directly above the starting point.
We skirted under the south summit and were back at the car in time to get home at a civilised hour for once.
One of those superb weekends that make up for the wet and windy weather we normally enjoy so much!
Lots more photos here
Karl and I made a second trip to the Climbers Club hut in Grange, Borrowdale, the first was Christmas eve where we did a damp and cold Corvus, this time it was winter walking on the cards.
