North Buttress, Buachaille Etive Mor
Posted by Max Hunter on 24th August, 2014
North Buttress started dry
Neal and Tim
On Saturday I was working for Abacus Mountain Guides.
I met up with Neal and Tim in the morning and we headed off to Glenoce. They have already climbed Tower Ridge, Ledge Route, Castle Ridge and Curved Ridge. On Saturday we planned to climb North Buttress. We were going to do D Gully Buttress, but there were showers coming in through the day, and D Gully Buttress is a little difficult on wet rock, in leather boots – so North Buttress it was.
The laybys and car parks were full at Lagangarbh by 9am! It was an incredibly busy day on the hill, and Curved Ridge saw MANY ascents. Luckily nobody else was on North Buttress. The climb started dry and the clouds seemed a long way off, but the morning satellite images clearly showed that this would be short lived – and sure enough, by pitch 3 the rain came in – a little heavier than I expected, and 10 minutes later I was wearing gore-tex from head to foot! The rain came and went several times, but we managed to have a dry spell for a long picnic on a large grassy ledge half way up – brilliant.
By the time we got to the summit of Stob Dearg, we had met up with the crowds again, but it was a great climb, and I’m sure Neal and Tim will be back another time to climb something else, perhaps a dry D gully Buttress?
