It was about time to return to Buachaille Etive Mor ( trans. big herdsman of Etive) for a fifth time, probably the most photographed mountain in Scotland, on most calendars, but what you don’t see is imagery from the summit! The standard route is up through the main gully of Coire na Tulaich, easy to start but steepens until you are on slippery rocks that follow the line of the river. It just gets harder from here on up as the gully starts to open a little it gets steeper and steeper, rocks under foot turn to scree, lots of it; all loose. One step forward two steps backward with worse to come and on it goes, sapping strength out of your poor tired legs.
Buachaille Etive Mor
To top it off it was still dark and my headtorch went to half power to conserve energy resulting in light about as bright as a candle, I’d forgotten to recharge the battery. At the top of the gully it’s almost vertical and a little bit of a scramble required.
Having broken over the top of the gully I peered back down, hot and well out of breath, wow what a sight, the scene before me fading in and out as the mist would open and close. I was pushed for time to make it to the summit for sunrise, but I knew I had to capture this view. I set up and the view closed in, nothing to see but shifting mist, I looked at my watch and did a rough calculation. Damn I could only afford to wait here for a little under ten minutes, I would have to go after that and it would still be a push. I was being optimistic at best.
I waited, the minutes ticking away and the mist refused to clear, I checked the time, looked at the route to the summit. It was still around a kilometre distance and about 130m ascent though solid under foot from here, still no view and being stationary I was beginning to feel the chill. I would have to go. Then it happened, just a brief opening in the mist WOW. I fired the shutter, rechecked the focus was good and fired another shot and that was it, the mist closed in. A practiced high speed pack up of camera gear and I was off.
View down the gully, Coire na Tulaich
Now as is often the case it was a push to the summit and I was racing the sun, heart pounding, lungs bursting to capacity and with every step upwards leg muscles complaining. For once I’d left home with good time in hand but had forgotten the torture of the scree gully; now it was back to the race against time.
Ideally I would have liked to have made the summit five minutes earlier, but I had to get that shot down the gully, sacrifices had to be made. However the summit position did not disappoint, it was still a game of see a composition set up and it would vanish in the mist, then I would have to wait patiently for the view to reappear and fire the shutter. The image on the right is of a misty Rannoch Moor in the early morning golden sun, but what can’t be seen is the sound track of Red Deer calling out in the rutting season, echoing up eerily from way down below.
So the game of hide and seek carried on with the mist revealing tantalisingly beautiful views only for the scene to close to that grey swirling mass of moisture.
Beinn à Chrulaiste
Any onlooker would have laughed as I hopped, skipped and tripped my way back and forth from one side of the summit to the other as views opened and closed, resetting the tripod and camera as I went.
Misty flanks of Meall à Bhuiridh and Creise
It is truly amazing how quick time can pass during these operations and it was soon time for the traditional mountain breakfast.
Croissants filled one with salami and cheese, the other butter and apricot jam plus of course lashings of hot coffee…
Following 2nd breakfast I’d planned to head on down, but it was turning out to be a beautiful day so decided to head on over to next summit, poor legs :)
Checking out the view
Glen Etive
Finally it was time to call it a day, time was going on and energy levels were low, I hadn’t planned on being on high for so long so hadn’t any lunch with me and I’d drunk all the coffee.
After the long descent and extracting every last ounce of energy from the legs there was one more surprise in store, a light shower followed by a rainbow.
It had been a long hard day out on the hill, just a little over 12 hours to this point, but it was worth that torturous climb up the scree filled gully in the early hours of the morning, what a day. Now it was time to head home to collapse in front of the TV with a pizza and probably fall asleep before the end of the film… :)