Aonach Eagach

Peaks: Am Bodach (940/3085), Meall Dearg (953/3126), Stob Coire Leith (939/3080), Sgorr nam Fiannaidh (967/3172)
Area: Glencoe, Scotland
En route to our holiday cottage in Glenelg, and wonderful weather meant there was a good opportunity to traverse this most famous of ridges while the family had lunch at the Clachaig. After staying near Glasgow, Kate dropped me off in Glencoe at the start of the route up Am Bodach. This is too steep to be properly runnable, but I was well rested and enjoyed the sustained effort - gaining height very rapidly to reach the summit of Am Bodach in 49 minutes from the road. Superb views across to Bidean, over to the Ben and the Mamores and beyond. The downclimb from Am Bodach to the col gives sustained and enjoyable scrambling on huge holds. Good running along the broader ridge to the summit of Meall Dearg followed. I'd now caught the early starters and had to apologise for passing so many on the narrow ridge - at least 40 or 50 people. My time was limited, however, so it had to be done! The scrambling was not as continuous as I'd expected, but still excellent - particularly the initial downclimb from Meall Dearg to a good chimney which gains an easy section before the excellent pinnacles, one or two of which are exposed in places but always with huge holds. The weather just got better as the day went on - a real shame I couldn't rest a while to properly absorb the view and enjoy the warm sunshine: rushing seemed somewhat inappropriate in superb weather like this, but there is a balance to be struck on family holidays. The final pinnacle gives exposed scrambling up the right-hand side and, in general, the ridge feels much less escapeable than, say, An Teallach: the pinnacles feel like mini-Alpine style gendarmes rather than optional entertainment. Good running up the easy slopes to Stob Coire Leith then over to Fiannaidh in 1:50 from the road (partly due to hold-ups on the ridge). Terrific views over Loch Leven to Garbh Beinn and over to Cruachan, Mull and Knoydart. Ran flat-out down the very steep scree slopes direct to Loch Achtriochan, just over 20 minutes to the road - 2:19 road-to-road for the full traverse.