Stob Coir'an Albannaich

I had been looking forward to going back down Glen Etive - glorious, spectacular, wonderful Glen Etive - for such a long time. Stob Coir'an Albannaich though, turned out to be probably the worst hillwalk I have ever done. I have never experienced such a catalogue of mishaps in my life, some were unavoidable, others were of our own folly!

The weather was a lot worse than the forecast had predicted, and despite our late start to make the best of the "brightening conditions", the rain lashed down. Over in Perth, we've had a lot of dry weather recently, and the recent rains haven't really muddied the paths, or re-awakened the seasonal burns. Glen Etive though was alive with the sound of running water, gushing and cascading from the saturated hills on all sides. The brim-full River Etive was gliding under the bridge at Coileitir, with the kind of silky power a river possesses when it is untroubled by the bouldery riverbed, deep below the surface.

Our day, though damp, began uneventfully enough. We parked, crossed the bridge and turned NE along the track to Glenceitlein, where at another bridge we turned into the hill and climbed the steep, wet, rocky, slippery NW ridge of Beinn Chaorach. Despite the waterlogged ground frequently sliding from underneath our feet, we gained Chaorach with little difficulty (no visibility!), and found our way simply on and round towards Stob Coir'an Albannaich. The finest features of the hill only came into our restricted view around the summit, and my guess is that on a fine day it would have been stunning.

Our first problem really arose on the summit. No sooner were we celebrating another Munro, that my walking companion suffered a nasty attack of cramp in his leg. Unable to move very fast, he started to get very cold, and really quite uncomfortable. Realising that thoughts of the projected 2nd Munro (Meall na Eun), were off the table, and that descent back down our ascent route would be ghastly, we took the decision to head off the exposed tops and down into more sheltered conditions. We found the bealach between Albainnich and the adjacent top (Meall Tarsuinn), easily enough, and started descent. Sadly our way was blocked by a powerful waterfall washing over the descent route, at a point where there was no way round. we had to re-ascend and find an alternative - and it was here in the thick fog, and pouring rain that we made a schoolboy navigational error, and landed in the glen-floor a long way from where we had hoped to be.

Then faced with a series of dreadful, deep, river-wades, my bootlace snapped, I didn't have a spare. The last 8Km or so were trudged with a slightly loose boot full of river water. Nice. The extra time which our extra mileage, deer-fences and deep rivers had cost us, meant that we were tired by the time we came to our final ascent, up to the 633m bealach between Meall na Eun and Meall Odhar. This done, we trudged wearily back round under out ascent route, and back to the River Etive, the bridge and the waiting car. To add insult injury, the car was wrapped in a cloud of midgies, swirling in fury, like a little tornado. Being eaten alive as threw off boots and pulled on trainers to drive in, we drove off as fast as possible, with the fans on full, and windows open to create a midgie-defying wind. It was only several miles later that I realised that the midgies had created in us a frenzy like their own, and that as a result I left my walking poles in the parking space. Where they presumably still are.

I need to go back to complete Meall na Eun, and see if I have a decent walk, or whether Glen Etive will once more be the scene of obstacles and errors.