As you travel through Glen Coe there is one mountain which everyone will notice. Buicheille Etive Mhor¹, or rather the peak at its nearest end, Stob Dearg². Always one of the five most popular mountains in Scotland, and it can be seen why. It's squat muscular pyramid thrusts from the bottem of Glen Coe, its naked flanks vast and threating, scarred by sharp gullies. It is the mountains' mountain. Meaning the big shepherd of Etive, it has a counterpart, on the otherside of the Laraig Gartain. The small shepherd runs parallel to Buicheille Etive Mhor, Buicheille Etive Beag³.

Buicheille Etive Mhor is a ridge of peaks, all over 3000 feet. The ascent is hard, and the descent even harder. This is not a forgiving mountain. Any mistake could be your last and at least some people are killed on it every year. The top of the aretes can be quite small, only allowing two or three people to pass, with those on the outside afraid for their lives. The drops are extremely steep and long. This should not be your first Munro. Try Loch Na Gar as an easy start to Munro 'Bagging'.

This is a hard walk, taking anything between eight and 12 hours. The distance is about ten miles and, on the way up, there is a some scree, some scrambling and some climbing involved, though with plenty of easy handholds. Only two of the four peaks will be described here⁴, though the route to the last two summits will be described. This is not a mountain to be done in bad weather, cloud coming down, when on the top, could be very frightening indeed.

How to Get There

Take the A82 to Glen Coe.

Preparation

See the Preperations for a Hillwalk in the Scottish Highlands page for full information. You will need to carry all your water with you, there is no place to refill after, about, a quarter of the way up. A couple of litres should do it. This hill should, really, only be climbed in good weather and in the summer, when long days allow time to climb and get back down.

Climbing to 'Ye Gods'

From the A82, the main road, stop at Alt-na-Feadh. Wander down the track towards the white cottage - Lagangarbh. Cross the River Coupall and onwards past the house. Take some time here, savour that flatness of track, the bounciness of the path, once you start climbing that is it. Ahead there is a wide gully coming down from a corrie, called Coire na Tulaich. Take the right path when the path forks⁵ and start climbing.

Stick to the righthand side of the burn⁶, and follow it, as it rises quickly. The path quickly deteriorates, and in some places seems to disappear altogether. As the gully closes in it is possible, depending on the time of year, to see groups of stags roaming on the other side. The high walls can make it pretty sheltered here, and there are plenty of midges in the first two thirds of the gully, so take plenty of protection, or cover up well.

After some scrambling straight up the side of the gully, trying to find the lost path, the most difficult part of the climb up is reached. The scree slope. The scree is rocks and boulders, split from the main rock by frost action, in the main. This makes the stones fairly jaggedy and pointed. As they are all piled up one on top of the other, they form a fairly unstable mass. Every footstep will sink in, and only cover half the distance intended. The going is slightly easier in the lee of a huge outcrop of rock, but the climber must then try and change sides, to reach the lefthand edge of the corrie.

Looking back down the corrie there is a slice of Glen Coe that can be seen. At the foot of the mountain there is the matchbox-sized white cottage that was passed earlier, the people behind looking like tiny specks. Across the main road the West Highland Way climbs up 'The Devils Staircase', the top of which can just be seen at this altitude. Deer are often seen on the gentler flanks of Buichaille Etive Mhor, and looking down from here is an excellent vantage point to see them.

Climbing straight up the corrie can leave climbers in perilous situations, once the rock outcrop on the lefthand side, at the top, of the corrie is reached, it is probably easier, and safer, to climb onto the outcrop and use it to get to the top. As in all such situations make sure your hands and feet have good grips before moving, because, though not a vertical climb, it is a very steep climb, and a backpack can feel awfully off-balancing. After getting onto the rockface, and climbing over half of it, the going gets a bit easier, and the top of the corrie is quickly reached.

The Peaks

Though the worst of the climbing is over, and the view from this vantage point is spectacular, the West Highland Way and the Devils Staircase laid out on the opposite side of the Glen, the realisation comes that there is still a long way to go. The corrie empties onto a small saddle, with the pink flanks of Stob Dearg streching up one way, and the arete to the next peak climbing the opposite. A quick refreshment break and it is on again.

Turning to the left, start walking up to the summit of Stob Dearg. The going is a lot easier than the corrie, though some of the stones will be wobbly, and they are sharp, from frost action. After walking for about 15 minutes over the pink granite, the top comes into site. The actual peak seems to be almost floating in space, connected to the main mass only by a small arete. Though the arete could happily allow three people side by side, it does not seem like that, and the steep sides leave little doubt over the fate, if one foot should slip.

Looking from the summit of Stob Dearg is one of the most spectacular sites. Looking down Glen Coe, The West Highland Way can be seen winding its way across Rannoch Moor. The main road is like a ribbon below, with tiny cars crawling along it. Across the Glen you can see the Devils Staircase, and over the top of it, to where it disappears down to Kinlochleven. Glen Etive is right below you, and you can see it wending towards the coast. Looking the other way, on a fine day, Loch Linnie is visible through a gap in the hills, guarded by the span of the Ballahulish Bridge.

Standing on the top of the world, as it feels, the other mountains all seem lower. Even Ben Nevis, visible behind Ballahulish, looks small. Looking back along the path to the summit, the other peaks in the Great Shepherd seem an easy task in comparison to what has already been accomplished. So taking a final look at the matchbox of The Kings House Hotel, and the light sparkleing from the peat bogs and lochans on Rannoch Moor, head back the way to the top of the corrie.

However, this is only the first of the peaks and, unless you feel like scree-running back down, there is still at least one to go. From the gorgous summit of Stob Dearg, head back towards the saddle and the corrie that allowed access to the heights. From here keep going towards the next peak⁷.

This is, arguably, the nicest part of the walk, once off the rocks there is a thin covering of soft, soft peat, and a thin layer of vegetation⁸. Enjoy this while you can, as the next peak looms higher and higher, looking steeper and steeper.

The ascent of the next peak is the easy part of it, though steep, and a real slog at times, it is fairly wide, and you are going up. This may seem a bit cryptic, but once over the summit it will all become clear. This peak is a devil, once over the breest the path to the other summits, and the way down is almost clear.

How the F*** Do You Get Down?

So you have reached the top, now you have to get down. Bwahahahahaha.