Buachaille Etive Mor (Aug 2021)

Sunday 29 August 2021

Not too early on Sunday morning Simon, Lewis and I set out for a day’s scrambling and easy climbing on Buachaille Etive Mor.

The promised, wall to wall, sunshine was little late arriving but by the time we were established on our first route, D Gully Buttress, a hard scramble with a rock-climbing grade of Diff, the clouds had burnt away and the sun was getting to work on our arms and faces.

D Gully Buttress went fine. Simon and Lewis were happy soloing most of it but I was not ashamed to ask for a rope to be dropped down to me at a couple of points. The highlight was us all roping up for the optional Severe pitch, Hell’s Wall, in the middle of the route, deftly led by Lewis.

Then it was over to the Rannoch Wall for a spot of lunch before tackling Agag’s Groove, the four-star Vdiff classic of the whole mountain. Everyone had a shot at leading and, though it’s been a long time since I first did this route, it was every bit as good as I remembered it.

An easy scramble up to the Crowberry Tower and then on to the summit finished off a spectacular day on the ‘Big Shepherd’.

If you’ve never scrambled or climbed up the Buckle, you really should!