The “big bookil” and I have
some history.
In 1984 I marvelled as a guy
we met on the West Highland Way pointed out the main climbing lines up the
front, my own first ascent was with the Renfrewshire Teachers Mountaineering
Club, my cousin and I had our own epic in horrendous conditions, I led my Dad
up it on a perfect autumn day, woke up close to the summit having left the
Kingshouse Hotel a few hours earlier around 1am (I’d decided to go see sunrise),
the “new bookil” aka Stob na Broige was ma last Munro and whilst it has seen
many other adventures, I’ll always think about my pal Colin who tragically lost
his life on the mountain in an avalanche.
With the Glencoe Skyline Race
hopefully being the project race for 2016, I grabbed what might be the last
opportunity to reacquaint myself with Curved Ridge which forms part of the
route. Rather than race pace it, I approached quickly but spent as long as was
sensible on the technical stuff – not so much to find the perfect line, more
just to get used to the steepness of the rock and impressive degree of exposure
with the Rannoch Moor far …far below.
Original plan had been to
continue over the race route as far as the descent down to the NN184599 point
but decided to revisit the summit of Stob na Broige which I hadn’t stood on for
15 years. Sitting at the cairn is was good to remember all the shared summits
since that day #brawtimes for reals.
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| Was it always this steep ? |
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| Wee crux corner from below |
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| Wee crux corner from above |
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| Crowberry Tower |
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| Looking over to Etive |
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| Looking back along the ridge to the start |
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| Stob na Broige |
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