Whilst on my family holiday in Scotland last week, my friend Mike (who was on a Northern work trip with Boreal) came up to meet us for a couple of days. We got a day pass out from my wife and headed for Glen Coe. With a good forecast it was decided that we would go to look at the Aonach Eagach. We had both been keen to walk this ridge for a while. Friends recommended that it is well worth saving for a good day. The views from the top are very rewarding, this turned out to be the case.
Setting off at midday, just as the morning cloud was starting to clear, by the time we summited Am Bodach it became sunny and warm. The initial descent from Am Bodach was quite exposed and you wouldn’t want to make a mistake!
We took a rope and harness with us but didn’t use them as it was dry and still. If you were of a more cautious disposition or it was wet and windy you might want to consider using a confidence rope on some of the descents. There was a slabby section later along the ridge that I would be tricky in the wet. We both found it thirsty work in the sunshine having only taken a litre of water each. Thankfully we stumbled across several snow patches which we used to fill up our water bottles with very refreshing slushies!
We met a group of friendly chaps halfway along that gave us some tips on the descent. They said that we should avoid the Clachaig Gully, which I had heard from a few different sources, and suggested that there was a more gentle descent towards the Pap of Glencoe which followed a good path down to the back road to Glen Coe Village.
We had a quick beer in the sunshine and contemplated the walk back along the road to collect the car (the walk is linear). However we were fortunate enough to collect a lift from a friendly guy called Derek. He picked us up straight away when we stuck out our thumb. The Aonach Eagach is a great mountain day out, it would be a very good training day for those wanting to do the Cuillin Ridge on Skye. The style of scrambling is similar, the route finding is much easier, there are no real climbing pitches and it's considerably shorter!
We also discussed that our foot wear choices were not quite right for the dry day we had. I was wearing my trusty Scarpa SL’s, which I love for Scottish hill walking. However this was more scrambling than walking, and it was a fine day. I wish I had been wearing my sticky soled shoes such as the Five.Ten Guide Tennie, Adidas Terrex Solo Stealth or Boreal Flyers.
Next time we will do it in winter!
Recommended books and maps for more info on the Aonach Eagach:
Scotland's Mountain Ridges by Dan Bailey (Cicerone 2010)
Glen Coe Superwalker 1:25 000 (Harvey)
Ben Nevis and Glen Coe 1:40 000 (BMC)
Glen Coe & Glen Etive 1:25 000 Explorer Active Map (Ordnance Survey)