Echo Edge, Meall Buidhe

Ken: For Nick and Keith’s final day, we decided to avoid the crowds and ventured to the quiet, yet stunning corrie of Meall Buidhe (near the Bridge of Orchy), where we climbed Echo Edge. The approach is fairly straight forward, although a bit of care is required to avoid minefields of boot swallowing bog.

The corrie is well hidden from the road, but is clearly visible for those travelling by train. It’s quite a grand corrie, with the main crag of Meall Buidhe tucked away on the left hand side. Echo Edge, takes the left hand edge of the buttress, and overlooks Forked Gully, and is supposed to be 135m of climbing, but with the sheer volume of snow, the first 40m or so is very straight forward. Thereafter, the climbing rears up a bit, and gives interesting turfy climbing. Tackling the cornice, which looked benign from the ground, proved to be a bit of a challenge, but after a mixture of chopping it away, and bits coming off, we managed to overcome it. It’s a good route, in a beautiful setting, but perhaps would be better with a bit less snow. Still, a great adventure and not another soul to be seen.

Our winter skills and summits course also had their final day. Hannah, Josh and Harry were also grateful that the winds had eased and they enjoyed a fun and adventurous day on Stob Coire Nan Lochan putting all their new found skills into practice, which gave a great finale to the week.