Over The Hill

I know that we all look forward to the weekends walks, but there has been a bit of a buzz around for the last couple of weekends whenever Stob Dubh has been mentioned - I think everyone was a little bit excited about this one - and rightly so, it's a challenging sight when seen from Glen Etive.

As we set off from the roadside in Glen Etive I think we were more concerned about the heat of the day rather than the climb ahead; it was already a scorcher and forecast to stay that way throughout the day, so most rucksacks were slightly heavier than usual with extra fluids in anticipation of a thirsty day ahead.

We crossed the River Etive by the footbridge above Coileitir and then took the left fork leading along the south bank, crossing the Allt Ceitlein and skirting around the cottage at Glenceitlein before striking up the grassy hillside onto the lower slopes of the south west face of Stob Dubh. The first 300 metres of ascent are a steady climb, and there are intermittent traces of a narrow path which eases the climb. However, you are continually confronted with the array of crags looming ahead, which begin as small, easy outcrops at around the 300 metre level and get increasingly larger and considerably steeper until you top out at around the 700 metre level.

By the nature of the climb, we tended to break into smaller groups of two or three as we made our choices of left or right traverses around the crags, which we accomplished without any great difficulty, with the exception of the final and largest set of crags which proved a little awkward as we traversed to the left and were confronted with a short rocky scramble before finally emerging onto the grassy area above. Job Done!

Pulling oneself (that's the royal oneself) up over the final crag it was great to stand on some "level" ground and take a breather - I spotted a small boulder field a few metres up the slope and headed there for a welcome short snack and drink, before making the final easy walk to the not to impressive cairn which marks this summit - the cairn being completely outdone by the very impressive and extensive views that greet you as you spin around 360 degrees and take in a wonderful vista of mountains in every direction.

A very relaxed lunch, in glorious sunshine was taken by the summit cairn, and while some of us enjoyed the views, we were compelled to undertake a lesson in Munro naming as we were "treated" to an impromptu lesson in "Name the Munro". (I bet he has and old anorak and GWR/GNER timetable squirreled away somewhere at home - Oh those "Wallflower" days!).

Our descent route from the summit cairn would take us south then southeast down the rocky slopes to the bealach above Coire Dubh-mor and then north east on the short ascent to the summit of Beinn Ceitlein (845m). The SMC Corbett guide suggests a south east descent from the summit cairn. However, we decided to swing south west along the ridge of Coire Dubh-mor before descending to the head of the coire and then cutting back to cross over to the north side of the small stream from where it was a relatively easy descent down the grassy ridge before re-crossing the stream, or, to be more accurate, the dry bed of the stream, to drop below the last of the small crags at about the 450 metre level.

From this point, we had an easy contour heading south south west on the grassy hillside along the 450m level towards the watershed at the head of Glen Ceitlein, easily identified by a shallow bealach sitting between the steep slopes on our right and a small grassy knoll to our left. We descended alongside the small stream from its source at the centre of the bealach and then made a descending traverse towards the Allt Ceitlein to join the stalkers path alongside the river for our return to the footbridge below Glenceitlein cottage, and then to re-trace our outbound track along the southern bank of the River Etive to our start point in Glen Etive.

This mountain certainly lives up to its reputation, it is hard, but what a great day, and the weather, well that was just the "icing on the cake". - Wonderful day, thanks Michael.